
■H 




HANDBOOK 

OF 

MEAT INSPECTION 

BY 

Dr. ROBEKT OSTERTAG 

PROFESSOR IN THE VETERINARY HIGH SCHOOL AT BERLIN 

WITH 260 ILLUSTRATIONS AND ONE COLORED PLATE 



AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION 

BY 

EARLEY VERNON WILCOX, A.M., Ph.D. 

VETERINARY EDITOR EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

JOHN R. MOHLER, A.M., V.M.D. 

CHIEF OF PATHOLOGICAL DIVISION UNITED STATES BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY 




New York 
WILLIAM R. JENKINS 

VETERINARY PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER 

851-853 Sixth Avenue 

1004 



4$ 






LISRARV itf CONGRESS 

Two Gooies Received 

JUN 27 1904 
ft Cooyrleht Entry 

CLASS CL KXo.W' 



Copyright, 1904, by William R. Jenkins 



All rights reserved 



.A 



/ 




PRINTED BY THE 

Press of William R. Jenkins 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



By the passage on June 3, 1900, of the Imperial Law concern- 
ing the inspection of meat and food animals, meat inspection is put 
upon a different legal basis than has existed heretofore. The new 
law, which crowns with fruition the endeavors which for several 
decades have been made toward the introduction of general meat 
inspection in the German Empire, contains stringent provisions 
concerning the organization of meat inspection and general direc- 
tions concerning methods of procedure with various kinds of 
defective meat. Temporarily, however, the meat inspection law, 
except in two parts, has not yet gone into effect. And in working 
over the new edition of the book I was, therefore, able to restrict 
myself in the section on the legal foundation of meat inspection to 
the introduction of the new law, together with the commentaries 
from official sources, and in rendering judgment on meat anomalies 
I confined myself to the addition of the qualifications of the new 
law to the regulations which had previously been in force and which 
had been based upon the pure food law. Attention should be 
called to the fact that the conception of damaged meat which had 
become general before the decree of the pure food law, but which 
was rendered void by that law, has again acquired a qualified 
recognition by the meat inspection law of the German Empire. 
The material of meat inspection, the investigation of meat and 
rendering of judgment on meat will be discussed in the regulations 
for enforcing the law which at present rest with the Federal 
Council. In case an official publication of these regulations does 
not appear, I shall compile tlfem as a supplement to my Handbook 
of Meat Inspection and publish it separately. 

Moreover, the contents of the book have been enlarged and 
elaborated according to the results of the literature of the subject 



iv AUTHORS PREFACE 

up to October 1, 1901. Especial attention lias been given to a 
review of the subject of infectious diseases of fish and crustaceans. 
The number of figures has been increased by illustrations on the 
recognition of age in sheep by the teeth, on the recognition of sex 
in crustaceans, on the development of trichina, on myxosporidial 
diseases of fish and by an illustration of the refractometer. The 
latter is used in testing fat of different origin, and will, therefore, be 
adopted in laboratories of meat inspection. Despite the increase 
in the contents of the book, it has been possible by shortening less 
important parts to publish it in its previous size. 

In conclusion, I would state that I am now in a position to 
fulfil my previous promise to publish a bibliography of the litera- 
ture of meat inspection. This bibliography will appear in the near 
future. 

OSTEETAG. 

Berlin, February, 1902. 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



Ostertag's " Haudbuch der Fleischbeschau " is generally 
recognized as the most complete and authoritative treatise on meat 
inspection. No apology, therefore, is necessary for the present 
attempt to make this work more accessible to English-speaking 
meat inspectors and veterinarians. The translation was under- 
taken immediately after the appearance of the fourth German edi- 
tion, but has been somewhat delayed on account of the pressure of 
other work. 

A few footnotes have been added where it was deemed desir- 
able, especially in connection with the controversial discussion of 
the trichina question. Certain sections on the less important Ger- 
man laws have been omitted and a few discussions have been con- 
densed. 

Dr. John R. Mohler, Chief of the Pathological Division of 
the Bureau of Animal Industry, in addition to the labor involved in 
reading the whole manuscript and making numerous suggestions, 
prepared the Introduction, dealing chiefly with the history and 
present status of meat inspection in America. It was felt that 
American meat inspection was inadequately treated in the text, 
and Dr. Mohler speaks with recognized authority on this subject. 

Perhaps the most pleasant duty of the translator in connec- 
tion with this work is the acknowledgment of the unusually excel- 
lent condition in which the publishers have furnished the proofs, 
and of their uniformly prompt and courteous attention to all mat- 
ters which the translator has laid before them. 



E. V. WILCOX. 



Washington, D. C. 
April 7, 1904. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGB 

Introduction xv 

I. — General Discussion op Meat Inspection t 

1. Nature and Problems of Meat Inspection 1 

2. History 9 

3. The Present Status of Meat Inspection in Civilized Countries. ... 29 

4. Practical Execution of Obligatory Meat Inspection 36 

5. Technical Supervision of the Meat Traffic 50 

6. Municipal Ordinances Concerning the Regulations of Meat 

Inspection 60 

II. — Imperial Legal Foundation for the Regulation of the Meat 

Traffic 63 

1. The Imperial Law Concerning the Inspection of Food Animals 

and Meat 63 

2. The Imperial Law Concerning Traffic in Food, Condiments and 

Manufactured Articles 95 

3. The Imperial Law Concerning the Prevention and Suppression 

of Animal Plagues 117 

4. The Imperial Law Concerning Measures Against Rinderpest 121 

III. — The Art of Butchering, Including the Inspection of Animals 

Before Slaughter 122 

1. Food Animals 122 

2. Inspection of Animals Before Slaughter 126 

3. Methods of Slaughter 130 

4. Order of Procedure in Commercial Slaughtering 145 

IV. — Inspection of Slaughtered Animals 153 

General Discussion 153 

Chief Points in Inspection 155 

Stamping Inspected Animals 155 

Condemnation 155 

Inspection of Diseased Organs 156 

Course of Inspection 156 

Appendix. — Inspection of Imported Meat 160 

vii 



Vlll CONTENTS 

PAGE 

V. — Normal Appearance and Differentiation of Meat and Organs of 

Different Animals (Fleischkunde) 166 

1. Normal Appearance of the Different Parts of Food Animals 166 

(a) The Skin 166 

(b) The blood 167 

(c) The Most Important Internal Organs 168 

(d) The Bones 176 

(e) The Lymphatic Glands 177 

(/) The Adipose Tissue „ 184 

(g) The Skeletal Musculature 192 

2. Differentiation of the Meat of Various Food Animals 198 

(a) Color, Consistency and Odor of the Meat of Different Food 

Animals ' 199 

(b) Color and Consistency of the Adipose Tissue 202 

(c) Character of the Skeleton 204 

(d) Differentiation of Horse Meat and Beef, According to 

Niebel 210 

Modification of Niebel's Method, According to Brautigan 

aud Edelmann 214 

Modification According to Courtoy and Coremans 216 

• (e) Demonstration of Horse Meat According to Hasterlik 219 

Appendix. — Differentiation of German and American Bacon.. 220 

3. Recognition of the Age and Sex of Slaughtered Animals and the 

Classification of Food Animals 221 

(a) Age 221 

(6) Sex ... 228 

(c) Classification of Food Animals 234 

VI. — Abnormal Physiological Conditions Which Possess Sanitary 

Interest 237 

1. Immaturity 237 

2. Meat of Fetuses 241 

3. Poorness 242 

4. Emaciation 243 

5. Abnormal Coloration of the Adipose Tissue. 245 

6. Abnormal Odor of Meat , 245 

VII. — General Pathology of Food Animals From the Standpoint of 

Sanitary Police 250 

1. Malformations 250 

2. Dissolutions of Continuity 251 

3. Atrophy and Hypertrophy 251 

(a) Atrophy 251 

(6) Hypertrophy 252 

4. Deposition of Pigment and Lime 252 

(a) Pigment Deposits 252 

(b) Calcareous Deposits '. 254 

5. Metaplasise '254 

6. Degenerations 254 



CONTENTS IX 

PAGE 

7. Disturbances of the Circulation 258 

8. Transudation 258 

9. Hemorrhages 258 

10. Necrosis 260 

11. Inflammations 261 

(a) Productive Inflammations 261 

(o) Serous Inflammation 262 

(c) Purulent Inflammation 263 

(d) Croupous and Diphtheritic Inflammation 263 

(e) Hemorrhagic Inflammation 264 

(/) Inflammations with Putrid Exudations ■ 264 

(g) Parenchymatous and Interstitial Inflammations 264 

12. Tumors 265 

(a) Benign Tumors 265 

(6) Malignant Tumors 265 

13. Infectious Granulations 267 

14. Animal Parasites 267 

Till. — Especially Noteworthy Organic Diseases 268 

1. General Integument , 268 

(a) Cutis 268 

(6) Subcutis 272 

2. Digestive Apparatus 273 

(a) Mucous Membrane of the Mouth and Tongue 273 

(b) Pharynx. : 278 

(c) Esophagus 279 

(d) Stomach and Intestine 279 

(e) Peritoneum 285 

(/) Liver 291 

(g) Pancreas 300 

3. Urino-genital Apparatus 301 

(a) Kidneys 301 

(6) Bladder and Urethra 309 

(c) Male Sexual Organs 310 

(d) Female Sexual Organs : 311 

Uterus 311 

Vagina 312 

Udder 313 

4. Respiratory Apparatus 318 

(a) Na-al Cavity 318 

(o) Larynx and Trachea ~ 319 

(c) Lungs 320 

(d) Pleura 332 

o. Circulatory Apparatus 336 

(a) Heart 336 

Pericardium and Epicardium 336 

Endocardium 337 

Myocardium 340 

(b) Blood Vessels 341 

6. Lymphatic Glands 342 

7. Spleen 346 



X CONTENTS 

PAGE 

8. Nervous System 348 

(a) Central Nervous System 348 

(b) Peripheral Nerves . 349 

9. Skeleton 349 

(a) General Diseases „ 350 

(b) Local Diseases 351 

10. Skeletal Musculature 355 

IX. — Anomalies of the Blood 367 

1. Oligemia, Anemia „ 367 

2. Hydremia 369 

3. Leukemia , 37 1 

4. Hemoglobinemia , 374 

"Black Ischuria " ( Azoturia) of the Horse 374 

5. Cholemia (Icterus) 375 

6. Uremia . 377 

X.— Poisoning (Intoxications), Effect of Odorific Drugs and So- 
called Auto-Intoxications 379 

1. Poisoning (Intoxications) 379 

2. The Effect of Odorific Drugs on Meat 384 

3. So-called Auto-Intoxications 385 

Parturient Paresis 386 

XI. — Animal Parasites (Invasion Diseases) 389 

1. Parasites Which are not Transmissible to Man 390 

2. Parasites Which may be Transmitted to Man by Eating Meat . . . 417 

(a) Beef Bladder Worm (Cysticercus bovis) 419 

(6) Hog Bladder Worm (C. cellulosce) 442 

(c) Trichina ( Trichina spiralis) 454 

Trichina Inspection 483 

3. Parasites Which are not Immediately Harmful to Man, but 

Which may Become so after a Preliminary Change of Host . . 499 

(a) Echinococci 501 

(6) Pentastomes 513 

Appendix 520 

1. Protozoa 520 

(a) Coccidia 521 

(6) Myxosporidia 525 

(c) Sarcosporidia 527 

(d) Hematosporidia 533 

2. So-called Calcareous Concretions in the Musculature of the Hog. 539 

(a) Calcified Miescher's Sacs 540 

(6) Calcified Trichina? 541 

(e) Calcified Cysticerci 543 

(d) Calcified Echinococci 544 

XII. — Plant Parasites (Infectious Diseases) 547 

General Account 547 

1. Putrid Intoxication and Traumatic Infectious Diseases 552 

(a) Putrid Intoxication (Sapremia) 552 



CONTENTS XI 

PAGE 

(&) Pyemia (Generalization of Purulent Processes) 556 

Special Forms of Pyemia and their Anatomical Characters 563 

(c) Septicemia 566 

Special Forms of Septicemia in Food Animals 570 

(d) Malignant Edema 574 

(e) Tetanus 576- 

Infectious Diseases which Occur iu Man as well as in Domesti- 
cated Animals 577 

(a) Anthrax 577 

(&) Aphthous Fever . . . 586 

(c) Pox 591 

Cow Pox 591 

Sheep Pox 592 

(d) Rabies 593 

(e) Glanders 594 

(/) Tuberculosis 601 

1. Nature and Occurrence 601 

2. Bacteriology and Pathogenesis 607 

3. Clinical Symptoms 611 

4. Pathological Anatomy 613 

5. Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis 618 

6. Local and Generalized Tuberculosis 620 

7. Examination of Slaughtered Tuberculous Animals. . . 623 

8. Sanitary Judgment on Tuberculosis 629 

(a) Tuberculous Organs 629 

(&) Judgment of the Meat of Tuberculous Animals 634 

9. Experiments Concerning the Virulence of the Meat 

of Tuberculous Animals 635 

10. Criteria Furnished by Experiments Concerning the 

Harmful or Harmless Character of the Meat of 

Tuberculous Animals , 643 

11. Boiling and Sterilization of Tuberculous Meat 644 

12. Obligatory Declaration for the Meat of Tuberculous 

Animals Admitted for Food 645 

13. Scientific Method of Procedure with the Meat of 

Tuberculous Animals 645 

14. Legislative Regulations on the Method of Procedure 

with the Meat of Tuberculous Animals 647 

Tuberculosis of Birds 651 

(g) Pseudo Tuberculosis 652 

(n) Actinomycosis 654 

(i) Botryomycosis 662 

Infectious Diseases Which Occur Only in Animals and are not 

Communicable to Man in any Form 665 

(a) Rindwrpest 665 

(&) Malignant Catarrhal Fever of Cattle 667 

(c) Pleuro-Pneumonia of Cattle 668 

(d) Hemorrhagic Septicemia of Wild Game and Cattle 671 

(e) Black Leg , 674 

(/)Braxy 677 

(g) Diphtheria of Calves 679 



Xll CONTENTS 

PAGE 

(h) Dysentery of Calves 681 

(i) Swine Erysipelas 683 

(k) Urticaria 691 

(I) Swine Plague 694 

(in) Hog Cholera 696 

Appendix. — The most Important Infectious Diseases of Fowls 703 

(a) Fowl Cholera 703 

(o) Diphtheria of Fowls 705 

Concluding Remarks on Diseases of Food Animals not Above 

Mentioned 709 

XIII.— Emergency Slaughter on Account op Serious Infectious Dis- 
eases and Meat Poisoning — Accidents— Defective Bleed- 
ing—Natural Death 710 

1. General Discussion of Emergency Slaughter on Account of Seri- 

ous Infectious Diseases „ 710 

2. Meat Poisoning 712 

3. Accidents 741 

4. Defective Bleeding 742 

5. Natural Death 743 

XIV.— Post-Mortem Alterations in Meat 745 

1. Phosphorescent Meat 749 

2. Decomposing Meat 751 

Appendix 758 

1. Sausage Poisoning (Botulism, Allantiasis) 758 

2. Poisoning from Mince Meat : . . . . 764 

(a) Poisoning from Decomposing Fish and Crustacea 766 

(6) Poisoning from Clams 767 

(c) Poisoning from Oysters 768 

XV. — The Addition of Flour to Sausages— Coloring and Inflation 

of Meat 770 

1. Addition of Flour to Sausages 770 

Note. Other Adulterations with Inferior Material 782 

2. Coloring 786 

3. Inflation 793 

XVI. — Preservation of Meat 798 

1. Chemical Preservatives 800 

(a) Salting and Pickling 800 

(&) Smoking 807 

(c) Preservation with Boric, Sulphurous and Salicylic Acids. . . 809 

1. Boric Acid 809 

2. Sulphurous Acid 813 

3. Salicylic Acid 819 

2. Preservation by Heat 821 

3. Preservation by Cold 824 

(a) Refrigeration by Means of Ice 828 

(o) Cold Storage Establishments with Mechanical Refrigerat- 
ing Apparatus 832 

Cold Air Machines 834 



CONTENTS Xlll 

PAGE 

Cold Vapor Machines 834 

Appendix 836 

1. Location and Structure of Cold Storage Plants 836 

2. Necessity of Cold Storage Plants 839 

XVII.— Boiling, Steam Sterilization and Harmless Disposal of Meat 841 

1. Boding 841 

2. Steam Sterilization of Meat 847 

3. Harmless Disposal of Meat Absolutely Excluded from Sale 854 

(a) Simple Burning , 856 

(b) Chemical Treatment 856 

(c) Steam Sterilization Under High Pressure 857 

Concluding Remark 865 

Appendix. — Enforcement of Section 21 of the Imperial Meat Inspec- 
tion Law 865 

Index 867 



INTRODUCTION 

HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS OF MEAT 
INSPECTION IN THE UNITED STATES 

BY 

JOHN R. MOHLER, V.M.D. 



The problem connected with the procurement and maintenance 
of a wholesome and hygienic food supply for the people is unques- 
tionably one of the most important subjects with which the sanita- 
rian has to deal. Public health demands the purity of animal food 
products. The vast quantity of meat consumed in the United 
.States, where this food-stuff is plentiful and comparatively low in 
price, renders it of essential importance that nothing but innocuous 
and nutritious meat products be placed upon the market. The 
amount of meat, per capita, used annually by various countries was 
computed by the British Government in 1890, when it was found 
that in the United States an average of 119.7 pounds was consumed 
by every inhabitant, a ratio surpassed only by Australia, where meats 
are more abundant and cheaper in value. To satisfy this domestic 
demand and to supply the foreign orders for meat, there has rapidly- 
developed in our midst a business the value of whose products in 
1900 was estimated at over $811,000,000, and which, among our 
immense industries, ranks third as to the aggregate worth of yearly 
exports. These facts, together with our knowledge — authentically 
established — of the communicability to man of many animal dis- 
eases, compel us to recognize the urgent demand for a hygienic 
meat supply — a supply that is clean, wholesome and absolutely free 
from disease. 

The foreign sales of the meat packing industry at first included 
numerous varieties of meats and meat products, and by 1879 the 
export trade in American bacon alone, without mentioning other 
food-stuffs, had become well established, when the continental coun- 
tries became alarmed, seemingly on account of the presence of 



XVI INTRODUCTION 

trichina in American hog products, and accordingly prohibitive 
measures against these meats were instituted. Italy was the first 
to promulgate these restrictions, and by 1881 Austria, Germany and 
France had likewise prohibited the importation of American pork 
or its products. American cattle met a similar rebuff at the instance 
of Great Britain in 1882, when regulations commonly called the 
" Slaughter Order " were instituted by the Order-in-Council of the 
Board of Agriculture, which compelled American cattle to be 
slaughtered at the port o& entry. This prohibition of store cattle 
was caused, presumably, by the presence of contagious pleuro- 
pneumonia among the cattle in a few of the Eastern States and Illi- 
nois, but notwithstanding this disease was effectually eradicated 
from this country in 1892, and since that time not a single case has 
been found either in cattle imported into Great Britain from the 
United States or among our herds, the restrictive measures continue 
to be enforced and the stigma constituting the assumed reason for 
this embargo remains. While it is plainly evident to anyone who 
has given this subject the least consideration that these two alleged 
sanitary procedures of foreign governments were directly pointed at 
the meat and live stock industry of this country, and although the 
vast falling-off in the value of our exports in these lines was to those 
variously engaged therein a hardship which continued for a decade, 
nevertheless, these interdictions must be considered as the potent 
and exciting factors in securing legislation for the scientific inspec- 
tion of meats for foreign and domestic use and incidentally in 
advancing the cause of veterinary science in the United States. 

The exclusion of American pork products finally became 
intolerable, and in order to relieve the situation and regain an 
export market for these food-stuffs, Congress passed the act of 
August 30, 1890, providing for the inspection of salted pork and 
bacon. It was but natural to presume that with the passage of such 
a law providing for the certification of the pure and healthful char- 
acter of American meats all restrictive measures against our export 
trade would be revoked. However, this initial act was not suffi- 
ciently comprehensive, referring chiefly to the manner in which the 
products were packed and their appearance immediately before 
shipment, without taking into consideration the condition at the 
time of slaughter of the animals producing these meats. For this 
reason the European countries failed to abolish their restrictions 
against American pork. The relief expected in consequence of this 
act was not, therefore, realized, and on March 3, 1891, Congress, 
recognizing the importance of protecting and fostering this export 



INTRODUCTION XviL 

industry, the value of which had reached the sum of $104,660,000 
iu 1881, and of acquiring and maintaining a pure and wholesome 
meat supply for our own people, passed a more effective act. This 
legislation authorized the issuance of regulations providing for the 
ante and post mortem examination of all cattle, sheep a,nd hogs 
intended for export and interstate commerce, especially providing 
for post-mortem inspection of cattle the meat of which is designed 
for export; for a microscopic examination of all hogs for export in 
order that certificates could be issued setting forth their freedom 
from trichinosis ; the condemnation of all diseased animals ; the 
marking or stamping of all inspected carcasses and the labeling of 
food products made from such carcasses intended for export or inter- 
state traffic. 

The work connected with the enforcement of this act was placed 
under the care of the Bureau of Animal Industry, which had been 
established in 1884 for the purpose of collecting information con- 
cerning the nature, cause, treatment and prevention of diseases of 
animals and the publication of the best measures for the prevention 
and eradication of such diseases. These increased duties rendered 
it desirable that the various lines of work be divided, and accord- 
ingly, on April 1, 1891, the Bureau was organized into several 
divisions, one of which was designated the Meat Inspection Divi- 
sion, and, as its name implies, had, among other duties, special 
supervision of the inspection of meats for export and interstate 
commerce. Regulations were immediately adopted for the purpose 
of carrying into effect this act of Congress. A system of inspection 
was devised, a force of veterinarians and their assistants organized 
and the inspection of meats inaugurated within ten weeks from the 
passage of the act, or ou May 12, 1891, at the abattoir of Eastman 
& Co., of New York City. Other abattoirs made application for 
inspection, and by the end of the first complete fiscal year, 1892, 
inspection had been granted to twenty-eight abattoirs in twelve 
different cities. 

It will thus be observed that federal meat inspection has only 
a very recent history, but one of which our people and our profes- 
sion can justly be proud. 

The microscopic examination of pork for trichina was first 
established in Chicago, June 22, 1891, and likewise started in other 
cities before the end of that year. At first there was some 'hesitancy 
and scepticism among the packers as to the practical application of 
this microscopic examination without seriously retarding the busi- 
ness of the firms and causing vexatious and unnecessary delays, but 



Xviil INTRODUCTION 

all doubts were shortly dispelled by the satisfactory performance of 
the work, and the problem was efficiently solved by the persistence 
and skill of the Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry and the 
growing perception and ripening knowledge of his assistants. As a 
direct result of these microscopic examinations of pork products 
which were subjected to the keenest scrutiny of the attaches of 
European countries and favorably reported upon by them, the decree 
of September 3, 1891, was made by the German government after 
the Saratoga Convention which readmitted American pork that was 
officially certified as having been microscopically examined before 
shipment from the United States. Subsequently similar interdic- 
tions were removed by Italy, France, Denmark and Austria, and 
in consequence of this reestablished confidence relative to the health- 
fulness and purity of the pork products of this country the export 
trade began at once to show decided and gratifying increase and to 
gradually expand and regain its former importance and value. 

The beneficial and desirable results that would necessarily 
accrue in consequence of having the supervision and inspection of 
the Government meat inspectors to certify to the purity and sound- 
ness of the products of their abattoirs, soon appealed to and was 
•quickly acted upon not only by the packers who sought to compete 
in foreign markets, but those doing strictly a local and interstate 
business. The proprietors of those abattoirs desiring inspection 
for their meat products are required to make written application to 
the Secretary of Agriculture, stating the kind and number of animals 
slaughtered and the destination of the products thereof, and to 
agree to such supervision of their business as may be demanded by 
the regulations of the Bureau. On conforming to such require- 
ments the packing house is given a serial number by which it and 
the products thereof are thereafter known, and an inspector is 
placed in charge of the plant and furnished with a sufficient num- 
ber of assistant inspectors, stock examiners or taggers to carry out 
the required inspection. 

The extension of the work caused by the enforcement of the act 
of Congress can not be fully apreciated or comprehended without 
a knowledge relative to the importance and magnitude of the sub- 
ject. The successful and speedy elaboration of many details which 
necessarily requii-ed much labor and consideration and the care and 
efficiency with which they were immediately enforced exceeded all 
expectations when the difficulties and obstacles — the inherent per- 
plexities of the question — were considered. Moreover, this 
inspection was an innovation in sanitation in this country and was 






INTRODUCTION XIX 

of necessity carried out principally by inexperienced men who 
were chosen chiefly on the strength of their political influence 
rather than by the breadth of their veterinary knowledge. 

The next epoch in the history of meat inspection is marked by 
the placing of all employees of the Bureau into the classified service 
by Presidential order. This took effect July 1, 1894, since which 
time all appointments to the force have been made only after the 
applicant has passed a rigid and highly satisfactory examination. 
By this means only the intelligent, competent and superior candi- 
dates are chosen from the eligible list by certification from the U. 
S. Civil Service Commission. Now that the merit system is in 
vogue, not only the personnel of the Bureau has been improved, as 
would be expected, but the harmony and discipline resulting there- 
from is vastly better than is possible where political intrigue 
forms a basis of appointment, promotion and retention. The first 
requisite to be met by those aspiring to the position of meat inspec- 
tor is to be a graduate of a recognized and reputable veterinary col- 
lege and then to pass a rigid examination that destroys the ambi- 
tion of a large percentage of applicants. After successfully meeting 
these requirements and receiving an appointment, his future service 
depends entirely upon the personal equation and would include the 
ability, integrity and discretion with which his onerous and multiple 
duties are performed. 

Previous to 1894 the inspection consisted principally in the 
examination of beef for export and the microscopic examination of 
pork destined for continental Europe, but at this time, owing to an 
increased demand for official inspection of meats, a similar ante 
and post mortem examination was extended to hogs as had already 
been in operation from the beginning with cattle. In the following 
year calves and sheep were likewise subjected to inspection both 
before and after slaughter. As the inspection gradually increased 
and covered a larger number of animals, it became more and more 
important to obtain sufficient authority from Congress to dispose 
of the condemned carcasses, as the original act failed to grant power 
for the proper disposal of such products. The danger of allowing 
condemned meats to remain undestroyed is palpable when taken 
into consideration with the limited authority of the Federal Govern- 
ment regarding the use of such carcasses within the State. That it 
is highly unsatisfactory to the Bureau, as well as to the health of 
our people, to permit the packer to have absolute control over the 
final disposition of unwholesome meats, was readily appreciated, 
especially in view of the dearth of state and municipal sanitary 



XX INTRODUCTION 

authorities vested with the power for properly disposing of these 
products. Consequently, Congress, by the enactment of March % 
1895, granted full power to the Secretary of Agriculture to adopt 
such rules and regulations as would be necessary to prevent the use 
of condemned carcasses for export or interstate traffic, making it a 
misdemeanor punishable by a fine notexceeding $1,000 or imprison- 
ment not exceeding one year, or by both fine and imprisonment, in 
the discretion of the court. The work was rapidly advancing as the 
inspectors became more thoroughly trained and experienced. New 
problems and duties were taken up as fast as the previous ones had 
been elucidated and controlled, and the progress made was highly 
gratifying. In keeping with this policy of steady conservative 
progress, the service was extended in 1895 by new legislation to 
include the interstate cattle inspection, and by 1897 not only all 
the beef and the greater part of pork and other meat products 
exported to Europe, but a large amount of meat intended for inter- 
state commerce was inspected in accordance with the law. 

In the appropriation act of 1898 provision is made for the same 
ante and post mortem inspection of horses and their products as 
had been previously enacted in regard to cattle, hogs and sheep. It 
is specially stated that only horses may be slaughtered in such 
packing houses and their various products must be distinctly 
labeled as being from these animals. Inspection has been granted 
thus far -to but one abattoir, the products of which are mainly, if 
not entirely, shipped to Norway and Sweden. 

The demand for microscopically examined pork increased rap- 
idly, and in 1898, 120,272,590 pounds of this product were exported. 
A large number of skilled and competent microscopists were added 
to the inspection force, but the demand for microscopic examination 
was so great among the packers that the Bureau found difficulty in 
supplying the desired amount of microscopic inspection for hog 
products intended for export. The great increase in the demand 
for this inspection during 1898 and 1899 was ably and successfully 
met by the microscopic force, and they were rendering conscientious 
and efficient service when the country receiving the vast majority of 
our pork products instituted semi-prohibitive regulations which have 
diminished the exportation of this product in the last few years to 
a very large degree, until in 1903 it figured only 19,108,341 pounds. 

By perfecting the system of inspection and increasing the num- 
ber of inspectors, the work has been greatly extended and rendered 
more efficient each year, until to-day the scientific, systematic and 
rational system of meat inspection inaugurated throughout this 



INTRODUCTION XXI 

country by the Bureau of Animal Industry, after an existence ©' 
only twelve years, compares favorably with the much older servico 
of Germany, France, Denmark and Belgium, and is pointed to with 
commendation by many disinterested parties in foreign countries 
and accepted as a model by our states and municipalities in pro- 
viding methods of local inspection. How this result was accom- 
plished has been ably expressed by a foreign scientist in speaking 
of the United States meat inspection service : 

"The history of this organization embodied in the labor of Dr. 
D. E. Salmon is one of the highest examples of the rare combina- 
tion of scientific methods with executive administration that has 
ever been witnessed." It may be added that among the many signal 
personal achievements of Dr. Salmon's administration as Chief of 
the Bureau of Animal Industry since its inauguration, his work in 
connection with meat inspection stands among the foremost, as he,, 
and he alone, crystallized and consolidated it into a definite sani- 
tary force. The initiative, the determination and the momentum in 
all matters pertaining to the advancement and increased proficiency 
of this service were his, and it has now reached such a stage of 
development and approach to uniformity of procedure as to meet 
the demand of the most critical. 

Thus, commencing with a small force of inspectors in a few 
abattoirs, the service has gradually developed until at present 
there are 1,405 individuals engaged in the ante and post mortem 
inspection of animals. Of this number 411 are meat inspectors and 
assistant meat inspectors, all of whom are qualified and competent 
veterinarians ; 234 are stock examiners and 251 taggers, practical 
men connected with some branch of the live stock industry before 
receiving their appointments ; 233 are microscopists and assistant 
microscopists ; and the remainder are clerks directly associated 
with the work of inspecting meats. These men are located in 156 
abattoirs and stockyards in fifty different cities in the United 
States. 

It may be of interest to know how this large organization of 
men is systematically working in the accomplishment of so much 
good for the country both from an economic and sanitary stand- 
point. A brief survey will be taken of the methods at the various 
abattoirs and stockyards of making the ante and post mortem 
examination of the food producing animals the products of which 
are intended for export or interstate traffic. 

Ante-mortem examinations are made of all animals intended for 
slaughter in packing houses having federal inspection as well as of 



sxil INTRODUCTION 

those which pass through the stockyards that are under Govern- 
ment supervision. These inspections are highly important and a 
valuable safeguard to the health of the meat consumer, as there are 
certain diseases and conditions not attended by any macroscopic 
lesions in the carcass, albeit they are nocuous and repugnant. 
Direct proof of this is found in the literature of meat poisoning, the 
great majority of which cases could be directly traced to eating the 
meat of cattle slaughtered in emergency without any noticeable 
changes being observed in the tissues on post-mortem examination. 
The interests of the live stock industry also are protected by this 
examination, since none but healthy animals which have not been 
exposed to any disease are permitted to be shipped from stockyards 
to the farm as breeders and feeders or to abattoirs of other cities not 
having federal inspection. The rigorous character of this inspection 
before slaughter is indicated by the fact that ante-mortem con- 
demnations average about twice as many as the post-mortem. In 
the larger packing centers this inspection is done in the yards, on 
the docks, though principally at the scales, where all diseased and 
suspected animals are tagged. A brief description of their condition 
is recorded and they are then held for final disposition on post- 
mortem examination, with the exception of those animals that have 
been condemned for advanced pregnancy or recent parturition. 
These animals may be held until they have fully recovered from the 
parturient state (ten days) and then slaughtered, or in case they are 
not affected with or have not been exposed to any infectious disease 
they may be sold for stock purposes. 

Animals not inspected in the yards are subjected to an exami- 
nation in the pens of the packing houses, and those condemned are 
similarly disposed of as above with the permission and under the 
supervision of the inspector. 

Those that have been condemned on ante-mortem examination 
which fail on post-mortem to show sufficient lesions to warrant con- 
demnation are passed for food, while all carcasses not fit for con- 
sumption are tanked. However, there are a number of diseases in 
which the determination of the healthfulness of the meat must 
depend entirely on the post-mortem examination, and many animals 
are condemned at this stage that have passed ante-mortem inspec- 
tion. Thus the importance of these two associated methods of 
inspection is exemplified. The Bureau regulations which were 
devised to control the ante and post mortem inspection of animals 
and which have been subsequently supplemented as the needs of 
the service demanded, are clearly defined, thorough and most rigid 



INTRODUCTION XX1U 

and form a support upon which the inspector may unflinchingly 
stand in the performance of the duties of his office. To discrimi- 
nate with certainty between good and bad in the matter of meat 
supply is to the experienced inspector not a difficult task, when the 
carcass represented is an extreme, but for those cases on the border 
line, the rendering of a satisfactory and accurate conclusion is not 
so easy as at first sight appears, for it is extremely difficult at times 
to say what should be accepted and what rejected. To the German 
inspector it is not merely a question of yes or no, but with his "frei- 
bank " and the permission to sell certain infected meat after cooking, 
or raw meat of a low nutritious value, the responsibilities become 
divided into several possible actions and are thereby materially 
lessened. Owing to the impossibility of constructing rules cover- 
ing every case, and the difficulty of asserting at what stage in its 
development a process assumes loathsome or a disease noxious 
properties, the decision as to the disposition of a certain number of 
carcasses must be left to the discernment and individual judgment 
of the inspector. Moreover, the realization that all decisions based 
upon the literal or tolerant interpretation of the inspection rules 
and in sympathy with them will be approved arouses a pleasant and 
appreciative feeling and makes the thorough and particular knowl- 
edge of the regulations an integral factor in the proper and inde- 
pendent performance of the inspection. 

As there has been more or less discussion and adverse criticism 
regarding the large number of carcasses which the Federal inspec- 
tor examines each day in some of the larger packing houses, it 
might not be out of place to explain the American system of per- 
petual motion adopted in such abattoirs and the methods which 
make it possible for the inspector and his assistants to carefully and 
efficiently inspect the entire killing. The method of slaughter most 
frequently adopted is stunning with a pole-axe, followed by bleed- 
ing after a short interval has elapsed to permit of relaxation of the 
blood vessels and, consequently, a better outflow of blood. In the 
case of bulls, shooting is sometimes adopted, owing to their thick 
skulls. The Jewish method of shechtering is carried on in certain 
abattoirs on specified days. In the first instance the cattle are 
driven up to the killing pens at 6.30 A.M., and knocking begins 
immediately. The animal is then shackled, hauled through the 
sliding door onto the bed, hoisted on the rails of a suspended tram- 
way and, while hanging, is bled by the- "sticker" making at the 
bottom of the jugular furrow a longitudinal incision that severs the 
principal cervical blood vessels. After the animal has bled suffi- 



XXIV INTRODUCTION 

ciently it is pushed along by power or by hand to the bed on which 
it is to be further handled. While hanging here the "headers" skin 
the head and disarticulate it at the occipto-atloicl articulation. The 
heads are numbered either by a paper tag or by marking on the 
occipital condyle with a blue pencil, in order to identify the various 
parts of the carcass, should cause for condemnation be found. The 
animal is now lowered aud pritched in position on its back. A con- 
stant striug of attendants follows, one after another, in completing 
the work and turning out the dressed carcass. First the "leggers" 
take charge and remove the hind legs at the hock and the fore legs 
at the knee. Immediately after this the floorsman or "sider" 
skins the animal down as far as he can work towards the 
floor. The " caul-puller " now comes along and makes an inci- 
sion from throat to anus and removes the caul fat from the 
abdomen, placing it in a box corresponding to the number of 
the bed upon which the animal is lying. Another butcher follows 
and " loosens up " the esophagus and trachea and saws through 
the sternum. The hooks of the spreader on the hoist are then 
placed in the ligaments back of the hocks and the animal dragged 
into a semi-vertical position for skinning the buttocks and cutting 
off the tail. The latter is also retained and marked for recog- 
nition. After hoisting to a perpendicular position, the "backer" 
finishes skinning the animal. The " gutter," working simultaneously, 
eviscerates the carcass by starting with the rectum and following 
the sublumbar attachments down to the liver, pulling the paunch 
down and cutting all attachments with one circular sweep of the 
knife. The liver is next loosened by the hand and attachments cut 
by one stroke of the knife. Two circular incisions are made, start- 
ing from the superior and middle attachments of the diaphragm, 
but in opposite directions, following the tendinous portion of the 
diaphragm to its lowest or suprasternal portion. This opens up the 
thoracic cavity. The lungs are now seized by their subdorsal border 
and one long stroke following the aorta removes the lungs and heart, 
which, together with the other viscera, are now inspected. The 
rump sawyer next follows and divides the carcass from the coccyx 
to the lumbar vertebrae. The splitter with a large cleaver then 
continues splitting the animal in halves, ending at the base of the 
neck. The carcass is now hoisted on two rails with sliding pulley 
hooks and shoved over about twelve feet, where the neck man or 
hide dropper finishes cutting the hide from the neck, after which 
another helper splits the cervical vertebrae, thus completely sepa- 
rating the two halves. The latter are then pushed about ten feet 



INTRODUCTION XXV 

further, where the trimmers cut off all ragged pieces of flesh or 
bruised parts, trim out the spinal cord and pump the blood out of 
the four quarters by moving the fore legs up and down rapidly and 
scraping the blood clots from the vessels with the hollow of the 
hand. The carcass is now turned over to the washers, who scrub 
and wash it with very hot water, and finish by wiping it dry with 
towels. In case the inspection has not revealed any disease, the 
carcass is marked by placing a gelatinized label bearing the words 
"XL S. Inspected " and a serial number in indelible ink, which can 
not again make an imprint, in the region of the rump, flank, 
plate and shoulder of each half of the carcass. This mark signifies 
that the meat has been carefully inspected according to law and 
passed. Exceptions to this method of labeling healthy meat are 
made with those carcasses that are intended for the cutting room 
or are used for canning purposes in the same abattoir. Those car- 
casses to be shipped in sealed cars to another official abattoir for 
canning or other purposes are likewise not labeled nor stamped. 
After hanging for fifteen minutes the meat is run into the coolers to 
T)e ripened for local use, interstate trade or for export. The head, 
tail and caul are then removed to other parts of the building, the 
livers are placed in special boxes and the remaining viscera are 
thrown into a carrier to be removed. To perform this work requires 
about 50 butchers and from 40 to 45 men who wash and trim carcasses 
and 60 helpers to clean floors, move wagons, carry away offal and 
perform other miscellaneous work. In the above described manner, 
this force of men in an abattoir in this country may kill and dress 
between six and seven rounds of cattle in an hour, which means an 
average of 130 carcasses per hour on 18 or 20 beds. By the latter 
term is understood a portion of the killing floor opposite to each 
knocking pen on which the animal is bled, eviscerated and dressed. 
The 20 beds are arranged in a continuous series, the workmen 
starting on the first bed and going clown to No. 20, by which time 
the No. 1 carcass has been hung up and out of way for the next 
" run." In abattoirs where 28 beds are in use, two gangs of butchers 
and two sets of inspectors are used to perform the work. The 
inspector takes his stand with the gutter and passes down the line 
at his elbow, watching, feeling and examining all suspicious indica- 
tions. Surely such an inspection made by a man skilled in his line 
will enable him to find any lesion or condition which is sufficiently 
extensive or repulsive to warrant condemnation, and his ability to 
perform this task is no more remarkable nor startling than the accu- 
racy, deftness, familiarity and speed which we expect of any other 



XXVI INTRODUCTION 

skilful and experienced person in another vocation. When disease 
is observed in a carcass, a red tag bearing the words " Condemned 
meat" is immediately attached to it with a lead and wire seal. 
The head, tail and caul fat pertaining to it are secured and similarly 
marked with condemnation tags. After the carcass has been 
"halved," all portions of the body are placed in a special room 
of the building reserved for condemned meats to await a. more 
leisurely and extensive examination by the inspector. The latter 
always has an assistant at hand, and while the one is away looking 
after the saving of the various parts of the diseased carcass, the 
other continues along with the gutter. 

Calves and sheep are inspected both ante and post mortem 
under the same conditions and in practically the same manner as the 
animals already mentioned. 

The principal conditions requiring condemnation are mentioned 
in the Bureau Regulations and include : Hog cholera, swine 
plague, anthrax, rabies, malignant epizootic catarrh, septicemia and 
pyemia, advanced form of scabies and actinomycosis, inflammation 
of the lungs, pleura, intestines or peritoneum, Texas fever, general- 
ized or extensive tuberculosis, advanced pregnancy or recent 
parturition, any disease or injury causing pyrexia or otherwise 
rendering the flesh unwholesome ; those organs or portions of 
carcasses which are badly bruised or affected with tuberculosis, 
actinomycosis, cancer, or other malignant tumors and abscesses^ 
suppurating sores and tapeworm cysts ; immature or unborn 
animals; those animals too emaciated and anemic to produce 
healthy meat ; distemper, glanders and farcy, and other malignant 
disorders, acute inflammatory lameness and extensive fistula. 

Other causes for condemnation occasionally met with are para- 
sitic ictero-hematuria and caseous lymphadenitis of sheep, Hodg- 
kin's disease or pseudo-leukemia, inflammation of the genito-urinary 
tract and hernias. Hogs affected with urticaria, tinea tonsurans, 
demodex folliculorum and erythema are usually passed after de- 
taching and tanking the rind. 

If an animal is found to be affected with any of the above con- 
ditions the carcass and organs belonging to it are tagged and 
removed as above mentioned to a room provided for this purpose, 
the key to which is only in possession of the inspector or his 
assistant. When these meats are to be destroyed they are placed, 
together with a certain amount of floor scrapings, intestinal con- 
tents and other filthy substances, in the offal or fertilizer tank, the' 
top and bottom of which are sealed with copper wire and lead seals 



INTRODUCTION SZVU 

by a federal inspector. Steam is immediately turned on and the 
meat is destroyed for food purposes under the supervision of this 
officer. 

If only isolated muscles or portions of the carcass are to be 
destroyed as a result of unhealthful properties- or repulsive appear- 
ances, the carcass is usually removed to the cooling room with the 
condemnation tag upon it, and when properly chilled the affected 
parts are detached and tanked while the condemnation tag on the 
remainder of the carcass is removed and the regular inspection 
label placed upon the various parts. 

This condemnation of meat for human food does not necessarily 
imply that the animal producing the meat was diseased. Such 
action may have been due to various causes, as fatigue, asphyxia- 
tion, immaturity, parasitism not transmissible to man and other 
repugnant conditions, which, although they may not prevent the 
consumption of the meat with impunity, still are loathsome to the 
American people, who desire to eat only palatable meat of known 
quality. This is attested by the various laboratories in the country 
occasionally receiving specimens of tainted or discolored meats with 
letters from parties requesting advice concerning their wholesome- 
ness. Such meat is always a source of serious" apprehension to 
the American public, who do not care to eat meat, even if whole- 
some, should it present an offensive appearance, and chis senti- 
mental feeling is respected by the inspectors. 

In making a post-mortem examination of hogs two systems of 
inspection are enforced. One method is for the smaller abattoirs 
where the number of hogs killed per hour is comparatively small. 
One inspector can readily examine all these carcasses from the 
position he assumes on the bench beside the workman who 
eviscerates them. The second method in vogue is where the killing 
numbers 300 to 500 per hour and consists of the inspector stationed 
as above together with a colleague who is placed beside the scrap- 
ing bench for the purpose of examining the cervical lymph glands 
of every carcass after the header has cut behind the jaws. This 
inspection is principally to determine the presence of tubercular 
infection that might inadvertently pass by the second inspector on 
account of the lesions not being very prominent. Frequently it 
brings to light incipient cases which show the lesions only in the 
glands of this region. In case any alteration is observed or felt by 
the inspector, a previously devised mark, usually a cut on the right 
leg, is made, or a condemnation card attached by means of a hog 
ring and ringer, for the purpose of attracting the special attention of 



XXV111 INTRODUCTION 

his colleagues on the bench to this particular carcass. By this 
system of examination a thoroughly satisfactory and efficient in- 
spection is obtained and readily accounts for the large number of 
hog carcasses per hour which it is possible to successfully examine 
in this country. 

Some inexperienced persons have thought this must be a 
superficial inspection, their misgivings being due merely to the fact 
that one or two inspectors could examine such a large number of 
carcasses per hour ; but such doubts have been quickly dispelled in 
those who have been sufficiently interested to make personal 
observations. Unlike the old method of individual slaughter in 
vogue in many foreign abattoirs, where the inspector must go to 
each animal which is slaughtered, bled, eviscerated and dressed by 
one or two butchers, the method of handling the carcasses in this 
country is according to the combination or division of labor system, 
and unfamiliarity with these methods may probably account for the 
incorrect views held by some regarding this inspection. Their 
style of slaughter is not conducive to the performance of such a vast 
amount of work as in this country, nor is their inspection force so well 
organized as in the United States. Thus at Mannheim, where one 
of the finest abattoirs in Germany exists, the method of killing a 
steer by the percussion mask requires more time than would be con- 
sumed in killing eight similar animals in one of our large abattoirs, 
and the number of cattle slaughtered there during the entire 
year of 1901 was 16,338, an amount which one of the larger abattoirs 
in this country will have to its credit within two weeks. In the 
German abattoir the inspector usually has his own laboratory and 
much of his time is occupied in preparing tissues and in the 
microscopical diagnosis of lesions upon which he may desire infor- 
mation. In the United States the time of the inspector is wholly 
occupied by making gross examinations and thereby he is enabled 
to inspect a much larger number of carcasses than if it was neces- 
sary for him to spend a portion of his time over microscopical or 
bacteriological study of suspected tissues. In case such an exami- 
nation is necessary, the carcass is at once tagged and placed in the 
retaining room, specimens of the organs aud affected tissues are 
expressed to the Chief of the Bureau for investigation, and if an 
exceptional case, the disposition of the carcass may be determined 
on obtaining the diagnosis. Lesions concerning which a confirma- 
tion of diagnosis is desired, or other information regarding their 
nature is requested, are likewise sent to Washington for exami- 
nation. 



INTRODUCTION XXIX 

In order to give an idea of how the slaughtering of swine is 
accomplished, it maybe mentioned that the pigs having been driven 
to the killing pens, a chain is placed around the hind leg of one of 
the animals and attached to one of a series of constantly moving 
arms on a so-called Ferris wheel, which elevates the pig from the 
pen and places it on an inclined rail. The struggles of the animal 
carry it before the "sticker," who makes a small incision in the 
median line of the neck directed toward the thorax and severing 
the larger cervical blood vessels. When the animal dies, the body 
is placed in scalding water and then pulled through an automatic 
scraping machine where it is relieved of most of its hair. This 
scraping is completed by men along the scraping bench, after which 
the head is cut almost away from the body and the inspector 
-examines the cervical lymph glands. The hog is then hung on 
the track of a suspended tramway by means of a pulley which is 
provided with a double hook and fastened to the gambrel stick. 
The carcass is here eviscerated and during this process carefully 
examined by the inspector, who is placed at such a point on the 
killing floor that all the eviscerating goes on directly in front of 
him and so near the body that he can examine with his hand any 
lesion his eye might detect. His position also commands a view 
of the run before reaching him and of the line after the carcasses 
have passed onward. Beside him is a table, upon which various 
organs are placed, and in those cases where lesions are apparent, 
these viscera are tagged and held, as are also the carcasses, for a 
more elaborate examination after the killing has ceased, when the 
proper disposition of those condemned is finally made. The 
liealthy carcasses are then passed along the rail through the 
shower-bath and thence to the cooling room. 

All packages, cans, boxes, kegs, tierces and other vessels con- 
taining meat products from the inspected carcasses are required to 
be labeled with the number of the official abattoir whence they 
originated and with the declaration that they were inspected accord- 
ing to law. When the chief inspector is perfectly satisfied in this 
regard and also that they are pure and healthful, he has all pack- 
ages intended for shipment properly marked with the white meat 
inspection stamps bearing serial numbers. They are thereupon 
immediately cancelled and the product is ready for commerce. 

In addition to the regular ante and post mortem inspection of 
liogs a microscopic examination for trichina is made of all swine 
the products of which are exported to those countries that demand 
this inspection as a prerequisite for the admission of such meats. 



XXX INTRODUCTION 

After the hog has passed an ante and post mortem examination the 
carcass is moved to the cooling room, where three samples of muscle 
are taken by one of the government employees from the prescapular 
region, the pillar of the diaphragm and from the psoas muscle. 
Where the liver or tongue is to be exported a sample of this organ 
is likewise taken for special examination. The specimens are 
placed in a small tin box, which contains a duplicate tag to the one 
fastened upon the carcass from which the samples were taken. The 
boxes are then carried to the microscopic room, where they are care- 
fully examined by the microscopist and his assistants. Small por- 
tions of each of the three muscles are snipped off and prepared by 
mincing into three thin, evenly-distributed translucent mounts held 
together in a compressor. Each preparation is then examined 
separately under low magnification by placing it in a frame on a 
mechanical stage of a microscope. By means of a specially con- 
structed stage this frame which holds the compressor is made to 
run up and down on two parallel grooves and by means of a saw- 
tooth arrangement at the bottom and top of the stage, the compres- 
sor is forced onward, with mechanical precision, so that each field 
overlaps another. Therefore, every portion of the preparation must 
necessarily be in the field at some time during the examination. No 
microscopist is permitted to examine more than eighty slides per 
day and the work performed is always subject to the re-examination 
of the one in charge of this work. In case living trichinae or non- 
disintegrated dead trichinae are found in the mounts, the sample is. 
marked "0" and the carcass is taken from the cooling room and 
rendered into lard at a temperature not lower than 150° F. or turned 
into prepared meats by boiling until the interior is completely 
cooked. Those preparations in which degenerated or calcified 
trichinae or trichinae cysts or any substance which causes the least, 
suspicion, owing to its similarity to the above, are marked "B," and 
the meat of the carcass is withheld from shipment to those countries 
that require microscopic inspection, although free to be used in 
other trade. When the microscopist has found an absence of 
trichina, trichina-like cysts or any suspicious bodies, the prepara- 
tions are marked "A," and the carcasses represented are used for 
filling the orders of those governments demanding trichina-free 
pork. Before this microscopically examined meat is taken out of 
the cooler to be cut up, all the rejected carcasses must be withdrawn 
and placed by themselves to be treated as above mentioned. All 
other meats in the cutting room are put away and the tables, chutes, 
blocks and carriers cleared of all pork previously handled. The 



INTRODUCTION 



XXXI 



cutting up of the meat is then begun under the supervision of a, 
government official, after which it is placed in a cellar to be cured 
and stored prior to shipment as trichina-free products. No other- 
meats are allowed in this cellar, which is securely locked and the 
key retained by one of the government employees, who keeps an 
exact list of all meats coming into and going from the cellar. "When 
the microscopically inspected pork has been cured, smoked or 
otherwise prepared, it is packed in barrels, boxes or other packages 
upon which purple meat inspection stamps are placed in grooved 
spaces and covered with tin, to prevent them from being scraped ofL 
A purple certificate of inspection is then issued by the inspector in 
charge, stating the name of the consignor, consignee, destination 
and description of the packages and the numbers of the purple 
stamps thereon. It will thus be observed that from the time when 
the samples of muscles are taken from the hogs for microscopic 
examination, until the meat is packed and stamped for export, the 
entire proceeding is under the active and vigilant supervision of a 
government employee. 

The following tables taken from the report of the Chief of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry for 1903 show in a vivid and convenient 
form the development of federal meat inspection from its establish- 
ment to the present time and include the number of abattoirs and 
cities having inspection, the number of animals inspected, the 
amount of microscopically examined pork exported and the total 
cost of each ante-mortem examination. 

Number of Establishments and Cities Where Inspection was Conducted 
Fiscal Years 1891 to 1903 



Fiscal Year 


Number 
of Es- 
tablish- 
ments 


Number 

of 

Cities 


Fiscal Year 


Number 
of Es- 
tablish- 
ments 


Number 

of 

Cities 


1891 > 


9 

28 
37 
46 
59 
102 
128 


6 
12 
16 
17 
19 
26 
33 


1898 


135 
139 
149 

157 
155 
156 


35 


1892 


1899 

1900 


42 


1893 


46 


1894 


1901 


52 


1895 


1902 


50 


1896 


1903 


50 


1897 













The following shows the exports of pork to countries requiring 
certificates of microscopic inspection from 1892 to 1903 : 



XXX11 



INTRODUCTION 



Pounds 

1892 22,025,698 

1893 8,059,758 

1894 18,845,119 

1895 39,355,230 

1896 21,497,321 

1897 42,570,527 



Pounds 

1898 120,110,356 

1899 108,858,149 

1900 55,809,626 

1901.... 35,942,402 

1902 33,681,229 

1903 19,108,341 



The following shows the cost of each ante-mortem inspection 
from 1893 to 1902, inclusive : 



1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 



Cents 




4.75 


1898 


1.75 


1899 


1.10 


1900 


.95 


1901 


.91 


1902 



Cents 

0.80 

.88 

.95 

1.01 

1.08 



"Number op Animals Inspected at Slaughter for Abattoirs Having Inspection 
Fiscal Years 1891 to 1903 



Fiscal Year Cattle Calves 



Sheep 



Hogs 



Horses 



Total 



1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 



83,889 
3.167,000 
3,922,079 
3,861,594 
3,704,042 
3,985,484 
4,242,216 
4,418,738 
4,382,020 
4,841,166 
5,219,149 
5,559,969 
6,134,410 







59,089 


583.361 


92,947 


870,512 


96,333 


1,020,764 


116,093 


1,428.601 


256.905 


4,629,796 


273,124 


5,209,161 


244,330 


5,496,904 


246,184 


5,602,096 


315,693 


6,119,886 


413,830 


6,639.212 


555,836 


7,434,878 


668,855 


8,585,960 



7,618,146 
13,616,539 
14,250,191 

16,808,771 
20,893,199 
23,836,943 
23,339,884 
24,642,753 
25,277,107 
21,793,738 



3,332 
4,559 
1,992 
1,649 
344 



83,889 
3,809,459 
4,885,538 
12,626,835 
18,868,275 
23,122,376 
26,533,272 
31,053,171 
34.071,575 
34,619,188 
36,916,936 
38,829,439 
37,183,307 



The subject of meat inspection thus far considered has dealt 
only with the Federal system, as this is freely conceded to be the 
highest type of rational inspection existing in the United States and 
the regulations controlling it are frequently drawn upon in inagur- 
ating local inspections. The other forms found in this country are 
the local or municipal inspection and the state inspection. Before 
the act creating a system of meat inspection under Federal super- 
vision was adopted, several states — as Indiana, Minnesota, Col- 
orado, etc. — had so-called meat inspection laws, although they 
principally provided for an inspection of the living animals in the 



INTBODUCTION XXXlll 

stockyards. Certain cities, such as Boston, Detroit, Washington, 
etc., likewise inaugurated more or less valuable laws pertaining to a 
pure meat supply, but it was not until after the enforcement of the 
Federal act on this subject that more comprehensive and efficient 
municipal and state inspection laws began to appear, and, what is 
better, were enforced, encouraged as they were by the intelligent 
and successful work performed by the Bureau of Animal Industry- 
Among the most estimable of these laws for municipalities will be 
found those governing the meat supply of New Orleans, La., and 
Montgomery, Ala., which provide for public slaughter under the- 
supervision of meat inspectors connected with the Board of Health, 
and every piece of meat inspected and put on the market must bear 
the official inspection stamp. The recent law passed by the Mon- 
tana legislature must be considered as an excellent type of what 
each state should adopt and then honestly and efficiently enforce- 
By this broad and lucid law every city in the state having a popu- 
lation of 5,000 or over is required to have a system of meat 
inspection under the direction of a competent sanitary officer who 
must be a graduate of a recognized veterinary college. 

The necessity for state and municipal inspection may be appre- 
ciated when it is understood that the government has no power to 
inspect meats that do not leave the confines of the state. The facts; 
are, however, that in localities where abattoirs have federal inspec- 
tion, much of the meat used for city trade or for shipment within: 
the state as well as the large majority of the products which enter 
the interstate commerce is inspected by the government. But meat 
inspected may become contaminated, be subjected to unsanitary 
conditions, or become putrid or repulsive from various causes after 
it has passed beyond the jurisdiction of the federal inspector. It is 
therefore important that municipal and state inspection laws be on 
the statutes to take cognizance of such unhygienic conditions or 
changes in the flesh and to require market inspection in addition to 
ante and post mortem examination. However, the great danger 
that menaces the public health arises not so much from meat con- 
taminated after inspection as from uninspected meat produced 
in the numerous unclean and ill-smelling private slaughterhouses 
so frequently found on the outskirts of a number of our cities. To 
control the latter and to control them efficiently it is essential that 
laws be enacted for the proper supervision of these establishments, 
which kill at all hours of the day and night as inclination dictates 
or necessity demands. The regulations thereof should insist that 
the viscera and their lymphatic glands must be retained after their 



IXxiv INTRODUCTION 

removal from the carcass until examined by the inspector and their 
connection with the carcass appropriately noted. Inspection that 
includes merely the dressed carcass is unworthy of the name and 
extremely delusive, as it gives a false impression of security to the 
consumer. These houses should also be compelled to kill only on 
certain days or hours in order to permit the inspector to be present. 
All the butchers should be licensed and likewise their abattoirs, 
which should come up to a certain prescribed standard. A far 
better law, and one which would receive the endorsement of all 
sanitarians, would ordain the abolition of these small buildings and 
the establishment of a public slaughterhouse, as in Montgomery, 
Ala., remote from the center of the city and its business section and 
where a thorough inspection by a veterinarian could be made of 
all animals. Such an abattoir under rigid, though rational restric- 
tions, would be beneficial not only in facilitating the business but 
in promoting the sanitary interests of the city, as all the offal 
could be disposed of at once and all portions of the carcass not 
edible could be reduced to inoffensive articles of commerce. 

In some cities where the inspection is enforced by laymen, such 
■as butchers, cattlemen, or men even more disconnected with the 
practical part of the work, the result is seriously handicapped on 
account of their inability to recognize lesions that at once would 
appeal to one trained in the anatomy, physiology and pathology of 
the domesticated animals and in the relationship existing between 
their diseases and human health. If an adequate reason for muni- 
cipal inspection exists, and no one of intelligence will deny it, this 
should possess equal strength for having the law intelligently and 
efficiently enforced by capable officers of the law, trained in the 
knowledge of sanitation and comparative medicine. The plea that 
mich men are not available is becoming more untenable every day, 
as meat inspection has made such rapid progress and has now 
Teached such an important position that all the leading veterinary 
colleges in this country have provided this chair and have filled it 
with experienced veterinarians who in many cases give practical 
abattoir demonstrations. It is only a question of time when every 
town and city of any size will arise from their sanitary lethargy, 
as a direct result of the education of public opinion along this 
line, and will have an organized and compulsory system of muni- 
cipal inspection supervised by one skilled in veterinary science. 
And the adoption as well as the success of such inspection will 
Jepend to a great extent upon the interest shown and the support 
given it by the people of the country, for whose health and 



INTRODUCTION XXXV 

^well-being the conscientious inspector will give his constant sur- 
veillance. 

Perhaps of all parts of the field of veterinary publication in Eng- 
lish there is none so poorly supplied as that which pertains to prac- 
tical meat inspection. The English literature on this subject has 
been very sparse and not of a highly valuable character, making it 
all the more difficult for an inspector without the knowledge of a 
foreign language to fully comprehend the nature of many of the 
uncommon pathological specimens with which he comes in contact 
during his inspection. Fortunate, indeed, was the German-reading 
inspector who had access to the monthly meat-inspection journal 
published by Ostertag, as well as the latter's Handbook. In that 
journal many of the lesions which are little understood are discussed 
and it is not infrequent that by such articles the resemblance of 
such processes to our own observed lesions may become apparent. 

The issuance of the present publication on meat inspection, so 
ably translated from the masterpiece on this subject, will be of 
untold benefit, not only to the practical meat inspector and prac- 
tising veterinarian, but to the professor, student and layman as 
well. The need of such a book has long been felt by the English- 
reading inspectors and will readily be appreciated by them. The 
translation will perhaps be particularly welcome on account of the 
unusual interest at present .manifested in meat inspection in this 
country and the consequent demand for well-trained meat inspec-, 
tors who can take charge of this work in various municipalities'' 
where meat inspection is being established. 



I. 

GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION. 



1.— Nature and Problems of Meat Inspection. 

INature. — By the term meat inspection is understood the 
professional investigation and judgment on the entrails and meat 
of slaughtered animals with reference to their fitness as human 
food. In a broader sense, meat inspection also includes the 
examination of living animals before slaughter, which examination 
is required for a, more accurate judgment on the fitness of the meat 
for consumption. Furthermore, meat inspection embraces the 
supervision of public and private meat markets, as well as of all 
industries in which meat is manufactured into sausages and other 
products. This control of the market and industrial occupations,, 
which in the older south German ordinances on meat inspection! 
was characterized as extraordinary meat inspection, is a necessary 
supplement to true, or ordinary, meat inspection. For the meat 
of liealthy animals which, in and of itself, is suitable for con- 
sumption, may, iot consequence of improper preservation or other 
treatment, become subsequently unfit for consumption by man. 

Problems of Meat Inspection. — 1. The chief purpose of 
meat inspection is to protect man against the dangers which 
threaten him from eating meat. These dangers are of several 
sorts. The most serious consist in the possibility of the trans- 
mission of animal parasites (trichina and tape worms), as well as 
of infectious and toxic diseases (tuberculosis, glanders, anthrax, 
rabies, septicemia, pyemia, meat poisoning and botulism. 

The sanitary supervision of the traffic in meat is one of the 
most important parts of public hygiene, since meat forms the 
almost daily food of the greater portion of human beings, and 



2 GENERAL DISCUSSION ON MEAT INSPECTION 

consumers in the majority of cases are not in a position to recog- 
nize the wholesome or dangerous character of the meat of which 
they partake as food. 

Meat may possess the freshest appearance, the red color, the 
firm consistency or fat content, and the peculiar odor — in short, 
all the characteristics of perfectly normal meat — and yet be un- 
wholesome. The dictum of the English statesman Disraeli, 
"sanitary education is better than sanitary legislation," does not 
apply to the consumption of meat by man. Reliable criteria for 
the differentiation of wholesome and unwholesome meat are fur- 
nished only by the inspection of food animals before slaughter 
and the investigation of all parts of animals after slaughter, by 
meat inspectors. Thus it happens that there is no definite method 
of preparation by which all the unwholsomeness attaching to meat 
under certain circumstances may be removed. The consumer, 
therefore, can not protect himself sufficiently by private measures. 
Furthermore, experience has shown that the public, even in those 
cases in which it is possible, by observing certain precautions, to 
avoid the harmful effects of eating meat, is inclined to neglect 
these precautions. This is best illustrated by trichinosis. This 
is preventable by private measures, — thorough boiling or roasting 
of the meat. Nevertheless, the numerous epidemics of trichinosis 
to which hundreds of persons have fallen victims, have not sufficed 
to change the custom of eating raw and half-cooked pork. Gerlach 
justly observes that there is no more convincing proof of the 
everlasting unreasonableness of man in certain things than that 
furnished in trichinosis. 

For these reasons it is to be considered the plain duty of every 
community, through the organization of meat inspection, to with- 
hold from consumption all meat which is likely to injure the health 
of tlie consumer. 

Meat as Food Material for Man.— Man is omnivorous. No 
Truman race is found which lives exclusively upon a vegetable 
diet. While in certain countries the meat of domesticated animals 
is not eaten, yet animal food is, nevertheless, consumed in the 
form of fish, amphibia, mollusks, etc.* The amount of meat which 



* In Japan, according to Janson, the consumption of the meat of domesticated 
animals was forbidden after the introduction of Buddhism in the seventh century a.d. 
The slaughter of animals was resumed after the admission of foreigners to the 
.country. At first the latter alone ate meat. Gradually, however, the Japanese 
accustomed themselves to animal food, and in the beginning of the 80's it was 
introduced into the Japanese army. 



NATUIIE AND PEOBLEMS 6 

is eaten depends essentially upon the climate in which man lives. 
While the inhabitants of the N tropics live. principally on a vegetable 
diet and those of the polar regions almost exclusively upon an 
animal diet, the inhabitants of the temperate zone' live upon a 
mixture of both food materials, as the most suitable nourishment. 
The vegetarian manner of life in our latitude must be characterized 
as founded on error. The case is not altered by the fact that 
certain individuals, in spite of abstaining from meat, are capable 
of exerting considerable energy. Meat is indispensable for the 
majority of human beings if they are to remain capable of a normal 
amount of work. According to Manfredi, the physical degeneration, ' 
hick of energy, and effeminate habits of the southern Italians are 
due to the fact that they eat so little meat. Furthermore, according 
to Alanus, the so-called atheromatous degeneration of the walls of 
the blood vessels is frequently observed in vegetarians. 

Consumption of Meat. — According to the reports of the German 
abbatoirs, the consumption of meat in cities amounts to from 50 to 
90 kg. per capita per annum, exclusive of game, fowls and fish. 
In country districts the use of meat is less extensive, so that the 
total consumption in cities and in rural districts averages consider- 
ably lower. In the Grand Duchy of Baden, which thus far has 
furnished the only reliable statistics on this point, the consumption 
of meat in 1890 amounted to 35.4 kg., and in 1894 to 42.1 kg. The 
consumption of meat varies with the market price. 

The Bureau of Statistics in England published a statement in 
1890 on the consumption of meat in various civilized countries. 
According to this statement, the following amounts were consumed 
per capita per annum : 

Australia 111.6 kg. 

United States .' 54.4" 

Great Britain 47.6 " 

Sweden and Norway 39. 5 ' ' 

France 33.6 " 

Germany 31.6 " 

Belgium and the Netherlands 31.3 " 

Austria-Hungary 29.0. " 

Russia 21.8" 

Spain 22.2 " 

Italy 10.4 " 

Lichtenfelt compiled statistics for the year 1894 on the con- 
sumption of meat in Germany and the relative importance of the 
different kinds of meat in different parts of Germany : 



4 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION OF MEAT IN GERMANY. 



Region 


Cattle 


Calves 


Sheep 


Hogs 


Total 




Kg. 
17.6 
11.4 
13.4 
14.4 
13.0 
11.1 
20 5 

10 9 

11 5 
19.5 
18.6 
20.2 
11 6 
14 5 
22 7 
13.6 


Kg. 
1.2 
2.2 
20 
1.7 
23 
2.3 
2.6 
1.7 
2.3 
1.4 
1.7 
39 
2 6 
1 1 
3.0 
2.6 


Kg. 
2.8 
2.3 
43 
2.4 
09 
1.4 
1 8 
1.3 
0.4 
1.2 
5 
1.0 
0.9 
06 
5 
1.3 


Kg. 
15.7 
21.9 
20.7 
21.2 
16.6 
25.0 
23.4 
21 6 
19.2 
19.7 
16.8 
24 5 
17.3 
23.3 
30 8 
15.9 


Kg. 
37.3 




37.8 




40.4 




39.7 




32 8 




39.8 




48.3 




35 £ 




33.4 




41.8 


Hheinland 


37.6 




49.6 




32.4 
39 5 


Baden 


57.0 


Alsace-Lorraine 


33.4 






Average 


15.3 


2.2 


1 5 

1 


20.9 


39 9 







More than the average amount of meat, therefore, is eaten in 
Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesseu-Nassan, Bavaria and Baden. 
Baden and Bavaria are especially conspicuous in this respect. The 
smallest quantity of meat is eaten in Silesia and the Kingdom of 
Saxony. Beef is consumed to the greatest extent in Baden, and 
least in Hanover; veal, to the greatest extent in Bavaria and least 
in Wurtemburg. The inhabitants of Pomerania eat the most 
mutton, while those of Westphalia, Bhineland and Baden consume 
the least. The contrast with reference to the consumption of pork 
is quite striking, for, while the greatest quantity is eaten in Baden, 
the neighboring inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine consume almost the 
smallest quantity of pork. 

Meat Rations in the German Army. — The small peace ration of 
the German soldier includes, in addition to bread, rice, legumes or 
potatoes, and hulled barley, 150 gin. of meat ; the large peace 
ration during the maneuvers, 250 gin.; small war ration, 375 gm.; 
and the large war ration, 500 gin. 

2. Another problem of meat inspection consists in protecting 
consumers from financial loss by fraud. The inspection of meat 
must secure the proper conduct of the meat traffic. It protects 



NATURE AND PROBLEMS 5 

meat buyers against the likelihood of paying full price for inferior 
food staffs. As Schmidt-Mulheim rightly observes, no food material 
lends itself so readily to adulteration and fraudulent treatment as 
meat. Where meat inspection is not regulated, it is a well kuown 
-daily occurrence that meat of the lowest market value is offered for 
«ale at full prices. It not only happens that unscrupulous dealers 
substitute horse meat for beef, but an extensive fraudulent traffic is 
■-carried on with the meat of diseased animals. Butchers obtain the 
meat of such animals at minimum prices and sell it to unsuspecting 
buyers at full market price. In so far as the meat of diseased 
animals is not dangerous to human health, its sale may be per- 
mitted, but it is no more than right that the consumer should be 
made acquainted with the facts, and that he should be able to take 
advantage of the lower market value due to the diseased condition 
of the animal.* 

The Value of Bleat Inspection for Agriculture. — The profit which 
butchers make through the unrestricted sale of the meat of diseased 
animals is very considerable, since diseased animals are sold by 
farmers at ridiculous prices. Forty to fifty marks is a high price 
for a diseased beef animal, as appears from numerous legal pro- 
ceedings in cases of violation of the pure food law. For example, 
one butcher bought a diseased beef animal for 11 marks and 
testified that he had bought cattle at cheaper prices. 

Such methods of taking advantage of the rural population are 
checked by active meat inspection. A certain proportion of 
diseased animals is indeed prohibited from sale, but the owners 
-are protected against punishment, the degree of severity of which 
is quite out of proportion to the small profit which may be made 
from the unrestricted sale of questionable material. The other^ 
and, as experience shows, by far the greater proportion of diseased 
animals, the farmer is permitted to retain and utilize to advantage 
in a legitimate manner. Thus, for example, in the Grand Duchy of 
J3aden in 1891-1892, only 1,588 out of 12,200 cases of emergency 
slaughter were prohibited from sale, while the remainder were 
utilized at reasonable prices. 

For this reason meat inspection is of advantage to agriculture, 
And it is au evidence of failure to recognize the facts in the case, 



* The substitution of inferior in the place of prime meat is an old practice of 
meat dealers, as appears from (he old records concerning meat inspection. In this, 
-connection the procedure of the magistrate in Passau in the fourteenth century is 
Tioteworthy. The butchers were compelled to take oath annually that they would 
*ell only healthy marketable meat. 



■6 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

that, formerly, farmers in various countries opposed the intro- 
duction of meat inspection. Thus it also comes about that in 
countries without meat inspection the farmer is in other respects at 
the mercy of the butchers. It is sufficiently apparent from legal 
proceedings that butchers have sought to secure a great reduction 
in price on account of slight defects which were discovered after 
slaughter, while at the same time they offered the whole animals 
for sale to the original owners who lived some distance away. 
.Thus, certain cattle dealers were convicted of fraud in twelve cases 
in which they had pretended to the farmers that the cattle which 
they had bought of them had been found to be diseased when 
slaughtered. Such business methods are rendered impossible by 
the regulation of meat inspection. To the credit of the butcher's 
profession, however, it should be mentioned that the corporation 
representatives of butchers in Germany repeatedly appeared before 
the Reichregierung in the interests of the introduction of meat 
inspection. 

3. It is the function of meat inspection to furnish valuable 
assistance to the veterinary police and to veterinary hygiene. 
Through the regular investigation of numerous animals, especially 
through the opportunity to determine the condition of the internal 
organs of such animals, meat inspection is iii a position to detect 
cases of animal plagues which escape the notice of veterinary 
police. The detection of glanders offers, perhaps, the best proof of 
this statement. Moreover, the reduction in the number of cases 
of pleuro-pneumonia and the systematic warfare waged by veter- 
inary police against tuberculosis is made possible only on the basis 
of a regulated meat inspection. The value of meat inspection for 
veterinary police appears in recent times to be underestimated. 
The words of Gerlach should, therefore, be borne in mind, that the 
successful labor of veterinary police is absolutely impossible in the 
present business operations without the control of the slaughter of 
animals. 

The Detection of Epizootic Outbreaks by Meat Inspection. — In the 
years 1892 to 1895, aside from foot-and-mouth disease and swine 
plague, there were detected by meat inspection in Germany 168 
cases of anthrax, 54 cases of glanders, 28 cases of pleuro- 
pneumonia, 10 cases of horse mange, and 55 cases of sheep scab. 
From 1896 to 1899, 212 cases of anthrax (including black-leg and 
hemorrhagic septicemia)) 96 of glanders, 26 of pleuro-pneumonia,. 
11 of horse mange, and 54 of sheep scab were detected. In this 



NATUilE AND PHOBLE.M.S ( 

connection, it should be remembered that the official statistics 
do not enumerate all cases of the detection of infectious diseases by 
meat inspection. 

In the abattoir at Magdeburg, during the first year for which 
reports were made (1892-1893), 11 cases of pleuro-pneumonia were 
found in apparently healthy cattle, and thus many affected localities 
were discovered and brought to the attention of the veterinary 
police. In the Province of Posen, during the last outbreak of 
pleuro-pnenmonia, the rapid reduction in the number of cases of 
this disease was due to the fact that the first case, which was 
brought to slaughter, was detected in an abattoir, thanks to meat 
inspection, which had been introduced in that locality. 

The purpose of veterinary hygiene is furthered by meat 
inspection, since all virulent material capable of multiplication 
found in slaughtered animals, especially animal parasites and their 
larval stages, is rendered harmless. Meat inspection is one of the 
most efficient means of combating the ever-increasing infection 
of domesticated animals by worms and bacterial diseases, and it 
thereby increases the profits from agriculture.* 

In localities without meat inspection, animal parasites, which 
annually cause an incalculable loss to agriculture, are furnished 
favorable conditions for propagation. The organs which contain 
parasites are not destroyed, as happens where meat inspection 
is regularly performed, but are usually fed to such animals as are 
capable of spreading the disease. In this regard meat inspection 
has already achieved visible results. In consequence of the 
systematic inspection of hogs for cj^sticerci, the tape-worm of man 
(Taenia solium), which develops from the hog bladder- worm, has 
become one of the greatest rarities in Germany. The number 
of measly hogs among native animals has been correspondingly 
reduced. In contrast to this state of affairs, it has been shown 
in the case of hogs which came from countries without meat 
inspection (Galicia, Boumania, Servia and Russia), that the per- 
centage of infected animals is incomparably higher. As in the case 
of measles in hogs, so also in measles of cattle, echinococcus. 
diseases and other parasitic affections ; in fact, even in the pro- 
portion of the infectious diseases of domesticated animals, the same 
result will be brought about. With regard to infectious diseases, 
the favorable effect of meat inspection is to be expected, especially 
in the case of tuberculosis of domesticated animals — our greatest 



* By this means also meat inspection is of considerable benefit to agriculture. 



8 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

plague. By the careful destruction of tuberculous organs, the 
dissemination of the pathogenic organism and the possibility of 
its transmission to other animals are prevented. The disastrous 
consequences of carelessness in handling tuberculous organs and 
parts are shown by an occurrence in the abattoir at Copenhagen. 
For a long time the butchers were allowed to feed hogs with 
the refuse from the abattoir. On slaughtering these animals it 
was found that 80 per cent, were tuberculous. 

Statistics on Entozoa and Meat Inspection. — Statistics on the 
occurrence of various entozoa which are communicable from man 
to animals furnish abundant proof of the beneficial effects of meat 
inspection. Wherever meat inspection has been introduced, 
Taenia solium of man, which develops from the hog cysticercns, 
has become of rare occurrence. Thus, in Southern Germany, 
Taenia solium of man and Cysticercus cellulosae of the hog have 
become rare in consequence of the existence there for a long time 
of regular meat inspection. In Munich, Taenia solium is almost 
never observed. Bollinger, therefore, maile use of the frequency 
of the occurrence of T. solium of man as a test of the quality of 
meat inspection. In striking contrast to T. solium, T. sagiuata has 
constantly increased in the last twenty years, because the early 
stage of this tape-worm in cattle, partly on account of the non- 
existence of meat inspection and partly on account of an insufficient 
examination of cattle for this cysticercus, was, up to within a few 
years, only occasionally discovered. 

The cysticercus disease of man has decreased to a degree 
which corresponds with the rare occurrence of T. solium. Next to 
Saxony and Thuringen, Berlin has furnished the largest number of 
cases of the cysticercus disease of the eye for a number of years. 
The oculist Hirschberg, for example, observed 70 cases of cysti- 
cercus of the eye among 60,000 cases of eye disease in the sixteen 
years between 1869 and 1885. From 1886 to 1892, on the other 
hand, in 46,000 cases of eye disease, Hirschberg found only two 
cases of cysticercus, one of which came from Saxony. This can not 
be accidental, but must be considered as a consequence of the 
introduction of meat inspection, which took place in Berlin in 1883. 
From 1892 to 1893, Hirschberg observed no case of cysticercus of 
the eye in Berlin, but observed one from Westphalia and one from 
Saxon v. 

Virchow also observed a less striking, but still noticeable, 
decrease in cysticerci in comparing post mortem findings from 1875 
to 1891. Of the 126 larvae of T. solium which were found in 



HISTORY a 

-cadavers during this time, 101 were located in the brain. When we 
compare the number of cysticerci found in the brain with the total 
number of brain examinations, it appears that since the introduc- 
tion of meat inspection the ratio has diminished from 1:31 to 1:280. 

Of 14,000 cadavers in Munich which were examined in the 
Pathological Institute of that city up to the beginning of the 80's, 
only two cysticerci were found in the brain, while in Berlin this 
parasite was found in 87 of the 5,300 post mortem examinations up 
to the year 1877. 

The decrease in the echinococcus disease of man is also 
striking. Up to the year 1888 Virchow was able to demonstrate 
from 5 to 9 cases of echinococcus disease per year in the cadavers 
which were examined in the Pathological Institute at Berlin. After 
1888, however, the number of cases decreased to from 3 to 1. 

Deffke has called attention to the inter-relation between meat 
inspection and helminthiasis of dogs. According to his investiga- 
tions, the number of dogs infested with entozoa in Berlin has 
diminished considerably since compulsory meat inspection was 
introduced into that city. While entozoa were found in nearly 
all dogs in Island, in Berlin at the end of the 80's only 62 per cent, 
were infested. Deffke attributes this difference chiefly to the rare 
occurrence of the three large taenia of dogs, especially T. marginala 
(from the Ct/sticercus tenuicollis which occurs so frequently in food 
animals). Krabbe found T. marginata in Island in 75 per cent, of 
the dogs ; Schone, in Saxony, in 27 per cent; Deffke, in Berlin, in 
only 7 per cent. Before the introduction of meat inspection, the 
large taeniae of the dog in Berlin, as was shown by special reports 
and statistics of disease, were a very frequent subject of treatment. 
According to Deffke, it may be asserted with tolerable certainty 
that in Berlin the tape-worms of the dog have become less 
frequent, entirely on account of the well regulated meat inspection 
■of that city. 

2.— History.* 

Antiquity. — Traditions of the oldest civilized nations show 
they possessed certain regulations concerning the consumption 

* Compare the works of Graber, "Historical Account of the Development of 
Public Sanitation in the Field of Animal Foods"; Goltz, " The History of Animal 
Foods and Meat Inspection,*' also "Historical Studies in the Field of Meat Foods 
■and Meat Inspection"; Adlcr, "Public Valuation of Meat in German Cities at the 
Glose of the Middle Ages"; and the related articles of Morot, Piltz, Stumpf and 
Gehrke. 



10 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

of meat. Thus we learn through Herodotus and Plutarch that 
the Egyptians, were forbidden to eat pork for the reason that it 
produced an excess of humors and eruptions. The animals which 
served as offerings to the gods and as food for the priests had 
to be carefully inspected. Only the meat of "clean" animals could 
be used in offerings and eaten. The use of "unclean" meat, on 
the other hand, was forbidden. Moreover, sacrificial animals were 
required to be perfectly healthy and free from defect. Such 
animals were certified by a mark on the horns (a strip of paper 
sealed with clay). Death punishment was prescribed for priests 
who slaughtered an animal which was not certified in this manner. 
The meat of cows was not eaten by the Egyptians, since the cow 
was the sacred animal of Isis. Likewise, the meat of other animals 
Avhich were considered sacred was forbidden food. Among the 
Egyptians the hog was the most unclean of all animals. Even 
accidental contact with it made one unclean, and led to exclusion 
from the temple until purification. 

Moses commanded the Israelites to eat no fat and no blood 
and to avoid the meat of hogs. Concerning sacrificial animals, it is 
stated in Leviticus, Ch. xxii, v. 22 : "'Blind, or broken, or maimed, 
or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these 
unto the Lord." Furthermore, " unvvholsome meat, carrion, and 
anything which has defects shall not be slaughtered, and that 
which remains of sacrificed animals after the third day shall be 
burned with fire." Animals which were torn by other animals 
were regarded the same as carrion. The meat of animals which 
were affected with wasting diseases could not be eaten. The 
eating of blood was forbidden because Moses considered the blood 
as the seat of life which belonged to the Creator from Avhom 
all life originated. Hy offering the blood of animals, believers 
reconciled their souls with God. The High Priest purified himself 
in order to enter the holy of holies once a year. The eating of fat 
was forbidden because, like blood, it was intended for sacrifice. 
According to Tacitus, the consumption of pork was forbidden to 
the Israelites, not only from religious grounds, but also because 
the origin of "lepra Arabum " was ascribed to it. The animals 
which were permitted to be lised as food included all of the 
ruminant ungulates, all fish which bear fins and scales, and birds 
which do not feed on carrion. Eating the meat of young animals 
was forbidden. A legal regulation was directed against the 
slaughter of such animals: "When an ox, or a lamb, or a goat is 
born, it shall be with its dam for seven days and thereafter it, 



HISTOEY 1 1 

may be offered to the Lord." The Mosaic, like the Egyptian, laws 
distinguished between "clean" and "unclean" food animals. 

The Jewish method of slaughtering food . animals was not 
prescribed first by the Mosaic laws, bat by the Talmud, which 
was edited by learned JeWs during the first five years of the 
Christian era. 

The Phoenicians, like the Egyptians, abstained from eating the 
meat of cows and hogs, but held the meat of dogs in high esteem. 
Berosus relates from the books of Qannes that the Babylonians 
established detailed regulations concerning diet. 

In Athens in the earliest times there was established a system 
of market police, whose officers (agoranomoi) were intrusted with 
the proper conduct of the meat traffic. The Athenians were for- 
bidden to eat the meat of a lamb which had not been shorn once. 
According to Hippocrates, the Greeks were fond of the meat of 
dogs which had been castrated while young. Alexander the Great 
forbade the Lipanese the eating of fish for the reason that the 
flesh decomposed so rapidly. 

In ancient Eome, from the year 388 of the founding of the city, 
two curule sediles (cereales) exercised control of the meat market, 
public shops, and the cooking of meat. Meat condemned by the 
aediles was frequently thrown into the Tiber. In one number of 
Acta Populi Bomani diitrna, in the year 164 a.d., the following 
notice is found: "The sedile Tetini punished the small butchers 
because they sold to the people meat which had not been pre- 
viously inspected by the authorities. The fines were devoted to 
the establishment of a temple to the goddesses." 

The meat of goats was considered by the Romans as unwhole- 
some. On the other hand, the Eomans possessed an almost morbid 
predilection for pork. Fifty different articles of food were made 
from pork. The sexual organs of female swine were especially 
sought for by the Eomans during the existence of the Empire. 
Plutarch (De usu carnis) says: "Vulva porci nihil dulcius ampla." 
The dugs (sumen) of a sow which had just farrowed were not less 
esteemed and also the liver of an animal which had been fattened 
on figs. The longing of the Eomans for the genital organs of 
female swine and the extensive consumption of young pigs brought 
about such a great decrease in the number of hogs that the 
Emperor Severus forbade the slaughter of brood sows and sucking 
pigs, — an edict which was reissued by the Emperor Julianus. 
Hares were considered unclean and harmful to the digestion, and 
were, therefore, eaten only by poor people. The meat of rabbits,. 



12 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

on the contrary, was much liked. The young, when cut out of the 
body or taken away from the teats, constituted a delicacy for the 
decadent Romans. The meat of oxen was not eaten by the ancient 
Romans, out of consideration for their mates at work or in the 
field. They likewise ate no raw meat, for the reason that it had 
a repulsive, unclean appearance. The opinion prevailed that meat 
did not become food until it was completely altered by cooking and 
roasting. Salting meat was practiced by the Romans, and this 
custom was already common at the time of Homer. Moreover, 
they already understood the art of preparing sausages ; for example, 
bratwurst (botuli), schnittwurst (incisia), ringelwurst (circelli), and 
liackwurst (tomacina). Moreover, attention should be called to the 
fact that, among the ancient Romans, slaughter houses (lanienre) 
and meat booths (macelli) existed, which in extent and elaborate 
organization were not second to other public buildings. With the 
fall of the Western Roman Empire, these sanitary establishments 
of Rome were also lost. 

Mohammedans. — Mohammed decreed a series of regulations 
concerning food materials for the communicants of the religious 
society which was named after him. He forbade in the Koran the 
use of animals which died a natural death, carrion, blood, pork, the 
meat of animals at the slaughter of which the name of any other 
god was called upon, animals which died of asphyxia or of a blow 
or a fall or by injury from the horns of another animal or which 
were torn by wild animals ("it is necessary that the animal shall 
have been killed only by slaughter"), and animals which were 
killed in honor of other gods. 

GERMANY. 

(a) From the Middle Ages to the Thirty Years' War. 

In Germany the first regulations with regard to meat con- 
sumption are met with at the time of the appearance of the 
apostle Wienfried Bonifacius, at the beginning of the eighth 
century. Under the direction of Pope Gregory III, he forbade 
the eating of horse meat on the ground that it caused impure blood 
and eruptions. Pope Gregory III wrote to the apostle Bonifacius 
as follows : "I have learned from you that there are certain people 
among you who eat the meat of wild and tame horses. I therefore 
warn you that this ought to be permitted to no one, but that it 
should be prevented by all possible means in the name of Christ, 
and that atonement shall be made for it, for it is unclean and 
an abomination." 



HISTORY 13 

That not merely sanitary or aesthetic considerations determined 
the issuance of this bull is apparent from the conclusions reached 
at the Council of Celeyth in 787, in which the consumption of 
horse meat was forbidden by the Church for the reason that horse 
meat was sacrificed and eaten by Germanic peoples in honor of 
Odin. An attempt was thus made by forbidding the consumption 
of horse meat to combat a heathen Germanic custom and to 
promote the progress of Christianity. Moreover, the fear of 
leprosy was so great that the order in question was most puncti- 
liously observed (Piitz). Later, Bonifacius made known the desire^ 
of Pope Zacharius " that bacon and pork should not be eaten in 
any other form than cooked or smoked." Pope Zacharius forbade 
the consumption of the meat of diseased animals since it was 
generally considered as dangerous to health. In the moral courts 
of justice which the German bishops held in their diocese at the 
time of Charles the Great, the following among other questions 
was asked : " Whether any one ate the blood or meat of dead 
animals or of one which had been torn by another." 

From this it is to be seen, as stated by Schmidt (" History^ 
of the Germans "), that in those days many customs were still 
retained which had been ordained in the Old Testament with 
reference to food materials, although the New Testament had set 
aside the food laws of the Old Testament. 

With the increase in industrial development, the traffic in food 
materials, on account of its great importance to the health of 
individuals, claimed the greatest attention for itself. It is apparent 
that in early times the police power of the fronvogt and burggraf 
was exercised strenuously with regard to the business of the 
butcher. 

The earliest German records in which the traffic in meat is 
mentioned are the articles of incorporation of the city, of Freiburg 
in Breisgau, in 1120; the records of Archbishop Arnold I, con- 
cerning the city of Medebach, in 1144 ; and the Justitia eivitatis 
Augsburg iensis ordained for the city of Augsburg by Emperor 
Frederick I, in 1156; the municipal law of Hagenau, 1164; and the 
records of Duke Henry I, as well as of Boleslaus, in 1224 and 1242, 
with regard to the cloister of Trebnitz. In the Justitia eivitatis 
Augsburg iensis the butchers are mentioned as "carnifices." 

In an old record which Bishop Lutold made concerning the 
butchers' guild in Basel, in 1248, the following regulations are 
contained : " Thus they shall sell the cleanest and best meat in 
the highest and best located parts of the market, and hi the 



14 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

common meat booths they shall sell the kiud of meat which has 
previously .been sold in such places; while unclean meat— that is, 
entrails, tripe, etc. — shall be sold outside of the market." 

The municipal law of the city of Freiburg in Uechtlande, in 
1249, provides heavy punishment for dishonesty in butchers. 

The following mention is made of a certain slaughter house in 
the record of the city of Trachenberg, which, was established by 
Duke Henry III in 1253: " Dotavitnus ecclqsiae . . . officinas 
carnium pro sua utilitate et . . . curiam in qua pecora 
mactautur." 

In the year 1261, in a charter which he granted to Mayor von 
Cerlier, Count Baoul IV of Neuchatel stipulated that " meat 
showing eruptions should not be sold for good meat," and also 
that under the roof of a meat market "pork containing eruptions or 
meat killed by wolves or dogs, or the meat of any animal otherwise 
injured, should not be sold." 

The .regulations concerning butchers in the Augsburg charter 
in 1276 are very interesting. They prescribe slaughter in a public 
slaughter house for cattle, sheep and calves, and also compulsory 
inspection and declaration for diseased animals, thus giving evi- 
dence of a lrvgienic view-point which is not observed at the present 
time in a number of civilized countries. The charter contains the 
following statement : 

" ISTo batcher shall slaughter a beef animal, or sheep or calf, except in a slaughter 
house. If, however, animals die in country districts, two citizens and two honest 
butchers shall be appointed to issue a warning so that the people may suffer no harm 
from buying bad meat. If a butcher kills a measly hog, he shall sell it to no one 
without a statement of this fact. All the parts of any such animal shall be sold in 
the same booth, and if it is sold whole it shall be only under declaration." 

Furthermore, it was forbidden to put straw into the abdomen 
of slaughtered animals or to inflate the meat. In addition to a fine, 
there was also a severe punishment for a transgression of these 
laws. Moreover, the guilty person was banished from the city for 
a month, and " when he comes back into the city, he shall not be 
allowed to slaughter any meat for the period of a month." 

The municipal laws of Nurnberg, 1290, forbade keeping fresh 
meat for sale longer than two days. Furthermore, it was prescribed 
that no calf should be slaughtered before it was four weeks old. 

Duke Henry III imposed upon the public advocates in Wohlau, 
in 1293, inspection duties over "duodecim macella carnis et ununi 
factorium." 

The city laws of Bamberg in 1 306 forbade the sale of measly 



HISTORY ' ■ ,f n 15 

meat. In another regulation of the same period, prescribed, fop 
Bamberg, "it is also ordered and prescribed for butchers that six 
men appointed by the city and under oath shall first inspect 
animals intended for slaughter, and that any meat which these . 
experts consider of doubtful or inferior character shall be so 
characterized. Any person who shall thereafter sell the same, 
either in a house or in a market booth, shalh be convicted by. the 
testimony of two or more persons under oath, shall be fined five 
pounds of pennies, or must remain away from the city until he has 
paid this fine." 

In the early records of Duke Boleslaus, in 1307, the following 
mention is made of a certain slaughter house : " Curia mactatoria.. 
quae in vulgari Machehof dicitur." 

From the tax-roll of the year 1310 it appears that in N.ord- 
hausen there already existed a general slaughter house in which 
animals were slaughtered and sausages made. 

The meat statute of Stettin in 1312 prescribes that " the bone 
cutters" shall leave the tails on the rumps of slaughtered animals, 
so that they cannot sell cow meat for steer meat, goat meat, for. 
mutton, or the meat of bucks for that of wethers. 

The municipal law of Burgdorf, 1316, contains almost exactly 
the same regulations as those of the charter of Freiburg. 

The cities of Brieg and Grottkau received the laws of the city 
of Breslau from Duke Boleslaus III in 1 324. According to these 
laws, the councilmen were required to choose two men from each 
line of industrial occupation who were ordered to exercise a super- 
vision over the others, with the right "to use force in preventing 
the sale of any material which could be harmful to the city.',' 

The statute concerning the slaughter of animals in Koln and 
the city ordinances of Berlin in 1343 forbade the sale of " milch 
cows, animals torn by dogs," as well as " diseased, malodorous and 
unclean animals." 

In Wurzburg in 1343 punishment is provided for "all persons 
who offer for sale measly or mangy meat." 

During the progress of litigation between the cloister Frowen- 
rode and the village of Wolftnanushuseu in 1346, the following 
decision, among others, was handed down : " The inhabitants of the 
village shall, at an appointed time, bring all their hogs to the 
monastery, where they shall be appraised and inspected by viewing 
their tongues. Those which from the appearance of the tongues 
shall be considered clean and worth the estimated price shall be 
retained by the monastery." 



16 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

In Disseuhofen, during the fourteenth century, the butchers 
were allowed to slaughter only so many animals between Easter 
and Saint Verana's Day as they were able to dispose of on the 
same day. 

The charter of Zwickau in the year 1348 prescribes " that no 
butcher shall offer for sale in the meat booths measly meat, the 
meat of sows, immature meat, or any meat which has been cut by 
Jews. All such meat shall be sold outside of the booths." 

Bishop Gerhard of "Wiirzburg ordained the following regula- 
tions for the control of butchers in 1372 : " They shall not mix bad 
meat with good and no one shall cut up warm meat or offer it 
for sale." 

According to an abattoir statute of Hamburg in 1375, measly 
meat was required to be sold in a special booth on a white cloth 
(" up deme lakene "), and the same requirement was enforced in 
Lmbeck and Stade. 

In 1376 the butchers in Regensburg were punished because 
they "pfinnige Farche, eine Sau mit Tutten unci einen trefanten Ochsen 
zu schlagen willens gewesen." 

In Aachen, the "planks" (the old meat market which was 
mentioned in the municipal record of 1385-1386) were under the 
supervision of the master of the meat and fish market and his 
assistants. These individuals took account of the organization 
of the market and were furthermore required to cut off the ears 
of calves " which had not reached a suitable age," a method of 
marking them according to an old custom. " Special pig inspectors " 
were appointed for investigating hogs, and it was their duty to 
brand unclean hogs with a cut. They were required to take the 
*' oath of pig inspectors," which was as follows : " You shall be pig 
inspectors, for foreigners as well as for the native inhabitants, and 
neither for love nor money nor goods nor threats, nor from friend- 
ship nor enmity, shall you declare otherwise than as you find the 
pigs to be." 

In the year 1391, in order to carry out more strictly the 
sanitary police regulations of Augsburg, " a meat market was 
established, and where the old market stood it was torn down 
and a market was erected there and was surrounded by a wall." 

In Passau, in 1394, a system of inspection of animals and meat 
was introduced under two responsible councilmen with the assist- 
ance of meat inspectors. Moreover, the three butchers of that 
town were required to take oath annually that they would sell only 
healthy marketable meat. Measly pork was removed and the 



HISTORY 17 

vendor was obliged to return the price of the hog. Likewise, 
immature meat was condemned and thrown into the Danube. 

In Landshut, in 1401, an ordinance was passed prescribing 
that butchers should sell "Jew meat and measly meat" nowhere 
except between the meat tables, and that neither measly nor Jew 
meat should be offered as good meat. 

The charter of Wimpfen in 1401 prescribed that measly meat 
should be sold in a "measly booth," three steps removed from the 
ordinary meat booths. 

In 1414 the butchers in Ulm drew up a resolution which they 
offered to the council for adoption. In this document the traffic 
with measly pork, bull meat and Jew meat was regulated. Who- 
ever offered such meat for sale was not allowed to sell any other 
meat at the same time. If a butcher pickled measly pork imme- 
diately after slaughter, and the twelve sworn masters of the market 
were satisfied of this fact, the butcher was allowed to sell other 
meat. In the year 1423 it was ordered that hogs which were sold 
by bakers to the butchers must be put upon the steps of the court 
of inspection before they were allowed to be killed. 

On May 30, 1428, Haintz der Otaker and his comrades took the 
oath to keep the peace. They had been imprisoned in the tower by 
the mayor and council at Kempten because they bought a calf in 
Wytenow which was only eleven days old and killed it in the; 
slaughter house at Kempten and sold it. 

Steffen Smawczet von Begerndorf was made to take the oath to 
keep the peace on May 12, 1434, after having been imprisoned 
in the city of Eegensburg because he attempted to sell hogs in 
which the bladder worms had been secretly punctured so that 
the inspectors could not recognize them. 

The ordinance of the Council of Strasburg, 1435, forbade the 
watering of mutton before sale and ordered that sausages must! 
be manufactured iu the public meat booths and not in houses. 

In the Marbach region in Alsace there were sworn meat 
inspectors on duty in the year 1437. Their chief duty was to see 
that the quality of the meat offered for sale corresponded with the 
price fixed upon it. Only fat meat was admitted to common sale. 
"In the busy season/' butchers were allowed, "for the better 
accommodation of the people," to exhibit meat of inferior value. 
This had to be sold, however, in another booth. Furthermore, the 
meat inspectors were required to determine whether there was 
anything objectionable in the meat, and whether measly meat had 
been worked over into sausage. 



18 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

The Mayor of Munich in 1460 was granted a compensation 
as meat inspector of two pfennige and three heller. 

In Speyer, after the year 1487, "four masters of the meat 
market" had charge of the organization of the market, inspected 
the meat and collected fines. 

The ordinance of the Council of Niirnberg, 1497, forbade 
the inflation or swelling of calves' lungs or the lungs of other 
animals with water or by other means, " for the purpose of making 
the lungs and their covering appear more marketable, appetizing 
and larger." 

The City Council of Chemnitz, in the year 1506, granted a 
remarkable concession to the butchers' guild. They were allowed, 
in the summer time, to slaughter at home, in return for the annual 
payment of ten gulden, as a result of their "repeated requests 
and numerous protestations that if animals were killed in the 
slaughter houses the meat would decompose, become malodorous, 
and suffer other harm." The butchers, however, were required 
to promise "not to become a nuisance to anyone" with their 
slaughtering, not to throw any offal upon the street, but to deposit 
all offal, "especially of pregnant animals, immediately after 
slaughter outside of the city in places where no one would be 
annoyed by it," and to offer no " resistance " when they were again 
ordered into the slaughterhouses " on account of public exigen- 
cies." 

All of the regulations thus far mentioned are purely local in 
-character, corresponding to the organization of the feudal condi- 
tions of the Middle Ages. When the feudal states became 
independent, we begin to meet with regulations emanating from 
central authorities. 

Thus, the Mecklenburg state law of 1572 prescribes that the 
butchers in cities shall be under the control of the stadtvogt with 
the assistance of two qualified persons. The vogt and his assist- 
ants were required to see that no defective or objectionable meat 
was offered for sale. 

In the year 1582 the Palatinate state law prescribed regula- 
tions for butchers requiring them to state upon cards the kind 
of animal which is offered for sale, and to hang the cards in a 
conspicuous place, " so that the ordinary individual would be able 
to see and understand it." It was required that the meat of measly 
hogs, if not badly infested, should be offered for sale outside of the 
shambles or butcher shop at a place to be determined upon by the 
authorities. 



HISTORY 19 

" In case, however, the measly meat in question is found to be 
quite unclean, it shall be absolutely rejected and shall not be sold 
or used. For regulating this matter, two or three honorable men 
shall be chosen annually in each city, one of whom shall be frOm 
the council or court, the second from among the citizens, and the 
third shall be a butcher or person acquainted with that business. 
These men shall be meat inspectors and appraisers, and it shall be 
their special duty carefully and honestly to inspect all meat while 
alive and also after it has been slaughtered and cut up. They shall 
also determine according to general market values in each year the 
high or low value of the meat and set a corresponding price, and 
they shall have control of the organization of the meat traffic 
according to the various legal regulations." 

Moreover, the butchers were not allowed to kill any calf 
"which was under four weeks of age or under twenty-four pounds 
in weight, under penalty of a gulden. No butcher shall be allowed 
to sell knowingly any unclean animals or other animals which are 
emaciated or otherwise unmarketable, whether they be cows, 
wethers, sheep, or other animals, and shall not be allowed to 
slaughter the same under'a penalty of 50 gulden. Moreover, they 
shall not sell any animal in localities where an infectious plague 
exists." 

With reference to the objective fulfilment of duty on the part 
of meat inspectors, the public ordinance above cited contains the 
following : " Regularly appointed meat inspectors shall inspect 
living animals and shall pay strict attention to determining whether 
the animal is clean, healthy, and entirely wholesome ; and it shall 
be their duty not to allow friendship or enmity, gifts or presents, 
or any other condition to interfere with their business." 

With regard to the inflation of food animals, in a letter of 
incorporation of the circuit of Lichtenberg, von Kusel and 
Novelden, which elector Johannes. addressed to the butcher, baker 
and miller guilds in 1587, we find the following regulations : " Cer- 
tain butchers and their assistants occasionally use their unhealthy 
breath to inflate the meat of calves, wethers and bucks, especially 
in the breast, in order to make it larger and weigh more (?). To 
stop this repulsive and abominable deception and prevent all harm, 
all masters of the guilds and accredited meat inspectors shall give 
diligent attention to these points." 

The meat and butcher regulations of the principality of 
Wurtemberg in 1588 prescribed that " the higher and lower order 
of officials and sheriffs " shall exercise careful control of the slaugh- 



20 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

tering industry. A general Wiirtemberg rescript, in the year 1605, 
forbids the slaughter of " tainted" animals. The butcher ordinance 
of the same year directs, furthermore, that it shall be the duty 
of the police " to observe that no other than healthy, nutritious, 
and clean meat shall come into the market. To this end, slaughter 
houses, abattoirs and wagons shall constantly be kept clean and no 
other than healthy meat shall be slaughtered." Every individual 
who had bought meat from other localities was required to file with 
the official inspectors an official certificate concerning the health 
of animals in that region. The inspectors passed upon the cer- 
tificate, inspected the animals while living, and, after slaughter, 
determined the marketability of the meat, and "in general attended 
to all matters pertaining to a faithful service of the public in this 
regard." 

In the "Statut cles ehrsamen Eleischhauerhandwerks " of 
Schwiebus of the year 1590, the following paragraphs are found : 

"(8) We shall have care that each master of meat inspection 
shall slaughter clean, good, vigorous and marketable animals. If,, 
however, one or the other of these officers shall violate this rule, 
then the other masters shall take counsel and he shall be punished 
according to the verdict of his associates." 

" (24) The Jewish method of slaughter shall be entirely for- 
bidden, and any master of inspection who shall permit a Jevr 
to slaughter according to their custom, whether a large or a small 
animal, shall forfeit his office." 

The communities in "Rappenmunzbesirk der vorderoster- 
reichischen Lander," to which Marbach, Ilufach, Basel, Colmar, 
Miinster, Tiirkheim, Kaysersberg, Amerschweier and Miilhausen 
belonged, concluded in 1519 at Ensisheim to grant to the farmers 
an inspection of their animals " at the public market," if the 
butchers "did not give a reasonable price for their animals and 
would otherwise retain them at this price." 

In Bavaria in 1615 detailed regulations were enacted con- 
cerning the practice of meat inspection. In addition to other 
points, it was declared that no calf under three weeks of age 
should be slaughtered; that food animals "should be inspected 
alive as well as after slaughter in the manner required by law, and 
should be found healthy " by ordained sworn meat inspectors, 
"who were to be chosen from the most suitable persons by our 
State and market authorities and ordained, or similarly appointed, 
one for each village, by the rural courts upon the authority of 
the Four." 



HISTORY 21 



(b) From the Thirty Years' 1 War to the Present. 

As a result of the Thirty Years' War, the regulations which 
liad been adopted for the control of traffic in food stuffs as well as 
so many other of the conquests of civilization were lost. In this 
connection it is instructive to read a letter of Johann Georg, 
published at Annaburg, February 13, 1654 : 

" To the lientkammerverwalter at Naimiburgk. Faithful Friend, — Since I have 
b>een dutifully informed that in the majority, of the cities of our principality there is 
a lack of slaughter houses and abattoirs, that part of them have been ruined and 
•destroyed by war, but that in the majority of places they have not been rebuilt, 
therefore, it is said that there is much improper and corrupt practice with regard to 
food animals, much injustice and self-seeking. It is suspected also that that there is 
■extensive fraud in the estimation of the price of meat. We can not overlook this any 
longer, since abattoirs and slaughter houses should pay a certain annual tax to the 
■cities, and this has not occurred in the cities of Naumburgk and Zeits up to the 
present time. 

"Therefore, we command you by the authority of this letter to lay this matter 
before the councils of the cities and to ascertain from them whether they intend to 
institute and erect slaughter houses and how soon." 

In a second rescript of July 15, 1654, it is ordered " to buy or 
rent at least one slaughter house, since many less prosperous and 
small cities and localities have made a beginning in the erection of 
such structures." 

There were but few other ordinances which had reference 
to traffic in meat. An edict of the council at Aachen of April 8, 
1664, fixed the price for different kinds of meat, forbade the sale of 
•cow meat as steer meat, and prescribed that " since horned and 
other food animals (as, unfortunately, is well known) sometimes 
die, no such diseased or infected animals shall be slaughtered, sold, 
or held for sale, and all unclean and foul-smelling meat " shall 
be excluded from the market. 

Moreover, the slaughter ordinances in Rostock, 1699, should be 
mentioned, in which the slaughter and sale of animals which had 
oeen bitten by dogs was forbidden. Furthermore, it was forbidden 
that mangy, dropsical sheep, or those affected witli pox, or which 
liad defects in the internal organs, should be brought to slaughter 
•or offered for sale. Likewise the sale of measly hogs was for- 
bidden. 

A second general ordinance was passed in Mecklenburg con- 
cerning meat inspection in 1710. According to this ordinance, 
regularly appointed inspectors in cities were required to see that 
no butchers slaughtered or sold any unsound animals. In case 



22 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

of doubt concerning the health of an animal, the magistrate or 
city authorities were required to institute an inspection by the 
kreisphysicus or some other physician, whose decision was to be 
awaited. In 1783 the inflation of the fresh meat of calves and 
wethers by means of the mouth was forbidden, and later also 
inflation with bellows, in spite of the vigorous protests of certain 
butchers. 

Likewise, a decree of the principality of Hanover in the year 
1712 provided severe penalties against the practice of inflating 
meat in order to give it a shining, voluminous appearance, and 
finally directs that "all officers or persons who have charge of 
the veterinary police shall be ordered to have meat markets and 
slaughter houses visited frequently by their assistants without 
previous announcement." 

Moreover, a Hanover rescript of the year 1716 prescribes that 
food animals shall be inspected before slaughter, and that when 
found to be healthy they shall be branded upon the horns and after 
branding shall be held for three days, after which they may be 
slaughtered after another inspection. In the same year, the intro- 
duction of smoked and salted meat was forbidden " because it is 
rumored that certain unscrupulous cattle dealers slaughter animals 
in infected localities and sell the meat after it is smoked or 
salted." 

Likewise, the market ordinance of Leipsic in 1726 forbids 
the sale of salted or smoked meat, a provision which later was 
enforced throughout Saxony. 

Meat inspection was very carefully regulated' by the patent of 
the principality of Brunswig-Luueburg, March 31, 1732. This 
instrument contained the following statement : " No animal shall be 
slaughtered either for the market or for private consumption before 
it has been inspected. Two deputies, assisted by two sworn 
slaughterhouse foremen chosen for this purpose, shall inspect 
under oath the auimals which are designated to them as food 
animals. If they find them to be healthy and without defects, 
the animals shall be branded with a G on the right horn and with 
the same character upon the right loin. After this has taken place, 
they shall sign a priuted certificate containing the result of their 
inspection. After slaughter the skin must be left attached to the 
back of the animal until the above mentioned officers have in- 
spected the brands anew and have declared that it is the same 
animal and that the internal organs have a healthy appearance. 
JFor these duties a compensation of six groschen per head in that 



HISTORY 23. 

city and three groschen in rural districts shall be paid. If, after 
the slaughter of an animal, it is observed that it is diseased, it 
must be removed immediately with the skin and the entrails and 
the whole carcass must be buried four ells deep in the earth." 

An imperial Austrian decree of 1753 prescribes that " since 
so-called cow-herds and skinners have the effrontery to salt and 
sell to unsuspecting people the meat and tongues of cattle which 
have died, and since these must be highly dangerous to the human 
body, all courts are ordered to exercise strict care that such 
enemies of mankind and self-seekers shall be exemplarily 
punished." 

A mandate of the principality of Saxony of November 6, 1753, 
directs that "in case of the prevalence of animal plagues, in order 
to prevent the transmission of these diseases to man, the meat 
of these diseased animals shall not be sold." 

A general decree in Baden on January 31, 1756, forbade the 
slaughter of calves and goat kids under three and one-half weeks 
of age. 

According to a ducal ordinance in Zweibrlick on October 15, 
1767, meat inspectors were required to give heed that no calf 
should be slaughtered which did not weigh at least thirty-two 
pounds. By a general ordinance, dated April 3, 1756, in Vienna, it 
was prescribed that all animals of whatever species should be 
brought for inspection either to the appointed local judges or to 
the ordained meat inspectors. 

According to a Koyal Prussian general decree of February 1, 
1769, animals which were bloated from excessive feeding with 
clover or turnips were excluded from inspection during life as 
well as from compulsory slaughter by a butcher. On the other 
hand, the patent and instructions of April 13 of the same year 
prescribed that as soon as a plague appeared in any locality 
all arbitrary slaughter of cattle without the knowledge of the 
authorities and the pickling' of meat should cease. 

On the occasion of an outbreak of rinderpest, an electoral 
Bavarian ordinance of the year 1796 forbade the consumption of 
animals which had been killed or which had died of the disease, 
and added the remark that any person who secretly sold the meat 
or internal organs of such an animal should be punished as a 
poisoner. 

A general decree in Baden, in the year 1756, was directed 
against the slaughter of immature calves and kids. In the year 
1772, in the same city, an ordinance was passed with reference 



24 GENERAL DISCUSSION OP MEAT INSPECTION 

to the determination of the adaptability of the meat of diseased 
animals for food as follows : " That in the case of a diseased animal 
which died of an epidemic plague, the opinion of a physician 
with regard to whether the meat can be eaten or not must be 
obtained. If, however, it died, not of an epidemic, but of some 
other disease, and the official is disposed to allow the slaughter 
of the animal, an examination must be made in every case by 
the meat inspectors or, in their absence, by local officials, and a 
judgment must be rendered whether the meat is fit to be eaten 
or not. 

This ordinance was passed, as Johann Peter Frank asserts 
in his "System einer Vollstandigen Medizinichen Polizei " (1784- 
1788), "in order not to increase, except from absolute necessity, 
the great loss of important food material in such unhappy 
times." 

Highly interesting are the detailed directions for meat inspec- 
tors in Bruchsal which were published at the same time and which 
contained a sample of veterinary science from the eighteenth 
century. The directions read : 

" It shall be the duty of meat inspectors to prevent the public 
sale or consumption of diseased animals ; for example, animals 
suffering from lung disease (harilungenfalige), jaundice, anthrax, 
pearl dieease, cysticercus disease, cancer, glanders, mange or any 
other existing disease whereby disgust, disease or plagues may 
be communicated to and disseminated in man and animals." 
Moreover, detailed directions were given for the inspection of 
animals before slaughter (whether the animal intended for slaughter 
looked lively and fresh in the eyes and whether it would walk 
readily), as well as after slaughter (inspection of the meat and 
entrails to determine whether the gall bladder was too large, as 
was known to be true in the prevailing animal plagues ; whether 
the spleen was too black or too large and whether the intestines 
were red or blue and tympanitic, etc.). 

Furthermore, it was declared " that it should be the chief 
function of meat inspectors to be on duty from time to time with 
police assistants, not only in the slaughterhouses, but also in 
the public market, and that at least one of them should appear 
daily and give special heed that the meat was always cut up 
in a proper manner by the butchers, was not sold for more than 
the quoted price, and that the whole procedure was according 
to the Articles of the Butchers' Guild and the quotations of the 
prices of meat." 



HISTORY 25 

The first mention which we find of a veterinary surgeon is 
in the general rescript of Wiirtemberg in the year 1761, which 
prescribed in case of an outbreak of an animal plague that "if a 
trained scientific veterinarian is established in the bezirk, the high 
bailiff shall have the necessary careful inspection made immediately 
on the spot by him, or otherwise under the immediate direction of 
the chief physician by some legitimate practicing veterinarian who 
has passed an examination." 

The electoral government of Bavaria, in a general mandate of 
August 16, 1761, revived the regulations concerning meat inspection 
from the year 1615 as follows: "Persons who wish to have animals 
slaughtered shall give notice of such purpose to duly installed meat 
inspectors and brand butchers in order that both large and small 
animals may be slaughtered in the presence of meat inspectors and 
that thus any punishment may be avoided, and this shall be 
enforced whether the animal is healthy or infected with a disease, 
in order that the meat may be buried, or utilized in case it is 
healthy." 

The appointment of " two reliable and trained men for the 
slaughtering, inspection and description of animal" was prescribed 
also for those places where there were no butchers. 

Of the newer regulations, mention should be made of the 
'Wurtemburg ministerial decree of the year 1802 concerning the 
prevention of the then so frequent cases of sausage poisoning, and 
another decree from the year 1822, which, in consequence of an 
outbreak of rinderpest, prohibited all traffic in horned animals and 
meat, as well as the utilization of the skins, meat, dung and tallow 
of diseased or affected animals in infected localities. In 1822 the 
use of the meat of animals affected with anthrax, was also for- 
bidden. 

A scientific influence manifested itself first in those ordinances 
which were passed after the Thirty Years' War. This influence, 
however, aside from the Bruchsal ordinance, was merely of local 
application, and consequently the action of official decrees was 
defective. 

The previously mentioned J. P. Frank specifically called atten- 
tion to this unfortunate condition toward the end of the 18th 
century and simultaneously indicated the importance of the official 
regulation of the traffic in food materials for the public welfare, in 
connection with numerous examples. The lack of scientifically 
trained veterinary surgeons was felt most keenly. This deficiency 
was obviated by the establishment of veterinary schools at the end 



26 GENERAL DISCUSSION ON MEAT INSPECTION 

of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century. As veter- 
inary science flourished and became disseminated, a remarkable 
change took place with reference to judging the meat of diseased 
animals. While in earlier times up to the 18th century in all 
civilized countries the meat of diseased animals, with the qualified 
exception of measly meat, in which tuberculous meat was also 
included, was considered as dangerous to human health, veterinary 
science began to demonstrate that much meat which had so long 
been held to be dangerous was in reality harmless. Giaber right- 
fully says : " It is, however, an old experience in the realm of 
science that new and surprising truths drag everything with them 
in unreasoning, blind devotion until geniuses sober down again to 
a cool, reasonable way of thinking." Thus the veterinary teaching 
of the harmlessness of meat in cases of certain animal diseases 
A T ery rapidly matured into a general belief that all meat of diseased 
animals is harmless. 

This erroneous view led to a sudden change of opinion on 
the question of the regulation of meat inspection. While some 
governmental authorities sought to overcome the increasing pro- 
tests against official prohibitions by means of constantly renewed 
ordinances, an unfortunate indifference manifested itself in the 
other direction. Thus, a ministerial rescript in Prussia in 1826 
declared that it was not permissible to compel non-union butchers 
to slaughter in an abattoir. It was allowed them to slaughter in 
their own establishments without restriction, as actually happened 
in the royal palace. As a result, slaughterhouses gradually fell 
into disuse in certain cities, and in 1842 none of the three pre- 
viously established slaughterhouses in Berlin were in existence. 
It was not until the year 1852 that Kiichenmeister established 
the fact that hog cysticerci were the embryonic stages of Taenia 
solium of man, and that the trichina epidemics which, during the 
60's of the previous century, appeared in northern Germany to 
an alarming extent, again attracted public attention to the necessity 
of regulating meat inspection. When in the year 1864 a commis- 
sion of the Berlin Medical Society met for consultation concerning 
preventive measures against the danger from trichina, they con- 
sidered it their first duty to recommend the establishment of 
public slaughterhouses for the preservation of the public health. 

In southern Germany meat inspection suffered less from the 
above described retrogression, as is to be seen from the decrees 
concerning meat inspection for lower Bavaria, October 21, 1836, 
and for Swabia and Neuburg, January 10, 1857. In the first named 



HISTORY 27 

ordinance, a system of instruction for meat inspectors, three grades- 
of meat were distinguished : (1) marketable ; (2) non-marketable ; 
(3) non-edible. Other ordinances concerning meat inspection were 
passed in Wiirtemberg in 1860, in Bavaria in 1862, and in Baden in 
1865, despite the fact that in southern Germany the danger from 
trichinosis did not exist. In the south German regulations con- 
cerning meat inspection, the possibility of the occurrence of 
trichina in pork was not considered. It is therefore probable that 
the connection which had been demonstrated by Kiichenmeister 
between the cysticercus of food animals and the tape worms of 
man furnished the chief impetus to a reorganization of meat 
inspection in addition to the general feeling of its necessity. 

The Kingdom of Prussia in the year 1868 passed a law with 
regard to the establishment of public slaughterhouses to be used 
exclusively for this purpose, and laid down the foundation for the 
practice of a scientific meat control. 

The biological investigations concerning muscle cysticerci and 
trichinae were the first building stones for the structure of scientific 
meat inspection. During the 70's, Gerlach carried out investiga- 
tions concerning the transmissibility of tuberculosis by the con- 
sumption of the meat. It was Gerlach also who published the' 
first scientific work on meat inspection ("Die Fleishkost des 
Menschen "). Simultaneously, Lydtin, the head of the veterinary 
service in Baden, organized in a model manner a system of 
practical meat inspection in the Grand Duchy of Baden. The 
most important advances of our science in the last twenty years are 
due, however, to Bollinger, who indefatigably and with convincing 
arguments insisted upon the great public importance of meat 
inspection, and who, by means of his treatises on meat poisoning, 
as well as by means of his numerous experimental investigations 
concerning the virulence of the meat of tuberculous animals, laid a 
solid foundation for practical meat inspection. These investiga- 
tions possess a quite peculiar value because they were carried out 
in an accurate manner with the utilization of the results of bac- 
teriological science which had developed rapidly in the meantime. 
Schmidt-Mulheim also attacked the problems of our science with 
effective results in its development. Being a trained physiologist, 
he treated the science of meat inspection and the methods of 
slaughtering in a scientific manner in his " Lehrbuch der Fleisch- 
kunde." Later he was able to arouse interest in meat inspection 
by founding a journal which was devoted entirely to meat inspec- 
tion and the knowledge' of animal food materials. Schmidt- 



28 GENERAL DISCUSSION ON MEAT INSPECTION 

Mulheim, by the trenchant, if not always considerate, articles in 
his periodical, produced striking results with regard to a more 
uniform treatment of the meat of tuberculous animals, the practical 
application of meat inspection to the pure food law which appeared 
in 1879, and the introduction of "freibanks" in northern Germany. 

From this period a large number of veterinarians in the service 
of public sanitation took the most active interest in the develop- 
ment of scientific meat inspection and in clearing up the numerous 
problems in this field which still awaited definite solution. The 
publications of individual abattoir veterinarians and the pro- 
ceedings of the incorporated societies of these workers furnish 
evidence that the abattoirs served also the purpose of scientific 
institutions. Mascher, in his brochure entitled "Wesen und 
Wirkungen des Schlachthauszwanges," rightfully says : " The 
requirement of slaughter in abattoirs changes every slaughterhouse 
into a temple of natural science, in so far as meat inspection is 
entrusted, not to apprentices in the public sanitary service, but to 
the masters of veterinary science." Of the strides in advance 
which have been made in slaughterhouses, I mention merely the 
construction of an apparatus for the disinfection of condemned 
animals by de la Croix in Antwerp, the discovery of the most 
frequent location of beef cysticerci, and the method for sterilizing 
the meat of tuberculous animals, due to the discovery of Hertwig, 
formerly the head of municipal meat inspection in Berlin. 

The rapid development of meat inspection, however, was made 
possible only by the fact that the teaching of meat inspection was 
introduced into the veterinary schools and was incorporated into 
veterinary curricula, in consequence of governmental regulations 
concerning the examination of veterinarians ; for in this manner 
trained men are produced who are competent to make a practical 
application of the theories of meat inspection. 

Concerning the history of meat inspection in countries other 
than Germany, the following notes may suffice : According to 
Morot, ordinances concerning meat inspection were passed in 
Scotland in the years 1153 and 1284; in Italy, in 1221 (Naples and 
Sicily) ; and in Belgium in 1333 (Tournay). The regulations of the 
Kingdom of Naples and Sicily were characterized by the draconic 
punishments which were provided. Butchers were not allowed to 
slaughter either boar or sow meat as pork, or to deal with animals 
which died a natural death, or with meat which had been kept over 
from one day to another, without acquainting the purchasers with 
these facts. The punishments provided for such cases were the 



PRESENT STATUS IN CIVILIZED COUNTRIES 29 

following : For the first offence, a fine of a lire of gold or corporal 
punishment; for the second offence, cutting off the hand; and for 
the third offence, hanging. 

In France an edict was issued on January 30, 1350, to the 
effect that only good, healthy meat should be sold, and also that 
meat should not be kept after slaughter for more than two days in 
winter, or more than one and one-half days in summer. According 
to Morot, meat inspection was practiced in certain communities at 
an earlier date (1162). The execution of meat inspection regula- 
tions was entrusted to magistrates and experts (prudhommes). 
The first public abattoirs in France may be traced back to the 
thirteenth century; for example, the ecorcherie in Amiens. Morot 
collected numerous ordinances in France which contained interest- 
ing prohibitions of the sale of fetuses, still-born animals, and of 
inflated meat, etc. The sale of measly meat was usually forbidden. 
Only in case of slight infestation by cysticerci was meat permitted 
to be sold under declaration of its condition. According to an edict 
of Robert von Anjou, in which the intolerance of that period is 
reflected, Jewish slaughterhouses were separated from the Christian. 
Moreover, it was forbidden to Jews, lepers, and prostitutes to touch 
with the fingers the meat which was exposed for sale. Another law 
concerning the inspection of animals and meat was passed on 
July 22, 1791. Napoleon I established in Paris in 1807 public 
slaughterhouses at the expense of the city and at the same time 
closed all private slaughterhouses within the city limits. By a 
decree dated February 10, 1810, this order was extended to include 
all the larger and middle-sized cities of France. The establish- 
ment of public slaughterhouses in France, however, received a 
material impetus by the decree of Napoleon III, August 1, 1864, 
according to which the taxes on the construction capital and the 
amortizement were to be returned to the city government, while the 
slaughter fees were not to exceed the expenses of maintaining and 
managing the institutions. 

3.— Present Status of Meat Inspection in Civilized Countries. 

In view of the great public value of meat inspection, it is 
exceedingly strange that not all civilized countries have granted 
their citizens the benefit of a regulated meat control. A general 
regulation of meat inspection is found at the present time, outside 
of Germany, only in Belgium, France, Holland, Spain, Italy, 
Austria-Hungary, Roumania, and Switzerland. Meat inspection, 



30 GENERAL DISCUSSION ON MEAT INSPECTION 

however, is practiced in these countries at the present time in very 
different ways. 

COUNTRIES OTHER THAN GERMANY. 

With the general organization of meat inspection in Belgium, 
for the basis of which the meat inspection ordinance of the Grand 
Duchy of Baden was taken, the more or less imperfect system of 
other countries stands in marked contrast. Thus, for example, in 
France there is no law concerning the general practice of meat 
inspection. It is only in Section 90 of the Regulations for the 
Practice of Meat Inspection in the law of July 21, 1891, aud in 
Article 63 of "Code Rural" that it is prescribed that abattoirs and 
private slaughtering establishments shall be subject to the per- 
manent control of specially appointed veterinarians. According to 
Moule, however, this regulation is not carried out everywhere in a 
satisfactory manner. According to my information, governmental 
meat control in France is, generally speaking, restricted to a certain 
number of cities. In Holland, the conditions are similar, and the 
only point which is regulated in a uuiform manner is that of the 
introduction of meat from foreign countries, according to an 
ordinance of January 1, 1899. The introduction and transportation 
of the meat of solipeds is forbidden, except whole animal bodies 
which are provided with skin and respiratory apparatus in their 
natural connection and which have been declared suitable for food 
by an official veterinarian. In Spain the meat inspection ordinance 
of February 24, 1859, is enforced in all provinces ; but only twenty- 
six Spanish cities are provided with public abattoirs. In Italy, a 
well arranged meat inspection law was passed August 4, 1890 ; the 
regulation of meat inspection is, however, left with provincial 
authorities, whereby a thorough reform is made impossible. In 
Austria-Hungary, section 12 of the law concerning animal plagues 
prescribes that the inspection of food animals and meats is to be 
practiced generally. This inspection, however, is not uniform in 
Austria-Hungary, since its organization was left with both States 
and individual crown lands, and was put into practice by these 
upon very different bases. Perhaps the new Austrian law of 
January 16, 1897, concerning the traffic with food stuffs, will bring 
about a uniformity in the practice of meat inspection. There are in 
Austria at the present time 253 public abattoirs and in Hungary 
2,127. Hungary has more public abattoirs than any other civilized 
country. In Roumania, Article 23 of the General Ordinance 
concerning veterinary sanitary police, of April 6, 1891, prescribes 



PRESENT STATUS IN CIVILIZED COUNTRIES 31 

that animals intended for general use shall be slaughtered in 
special slaughterhouses and shall be inspected by official veter- 
inarians. This ordinance has been supplemented by the sanitary 
law of July 14, 1893, and the regulation of September 11, 1895, 
concerning the sanitary supervision of the preparation of, and 
traffic in, food materials and drinks. Finally, in Switzerland, the 
sanitary investigation of meat intended for public consumption is 
entrusted to the individual governments of the different cantons. 
Merely the traffic in imported meat is uniformly regulated by a 
decree of the Swiss Federal Council of December 1, 1901. 

Other countries — as, for instance, England, which is otherwise 
so well organized with regard to public sanitation and which is 
called the cradle of hygiene — are entirely without a regulated meat 
inspection. The only event in this line which has occurred in 
England is an inspection of the meat offered for sale in private 
slaughterhouses and on the markets by "inspectors of nuisances," 
practical men who render their services under the direction of the 
medical sanitary authorities. A law passed in Scotland in 1892 
gives the municipal authorities the right to erect a public 
slaughterhouse and compel slaughtering to take place in it and 
accordingly to forbid the further use of private slaughterhouses. 
Lately the local Scottish authorities and the Scottish Agricultural 
Department have declared in favor of introducing a general 
obligatory meat inspection and of appointing veterinarians as 
inspectors. A beginning has been made in Russia in the establish- 
ment of public slaughterhouses in the large cities. Iu the year 
1894 the number of such institutions was 20. Moreover, a regula- 
tion on meat inspection was issued in the form of a circular letter 
of the Minister of the Interior, July 29, 1895, concerning the 
execution of Article 633 of the Medical Laws. According to this 
letter, " with reference to the introduction of a uniform inspection 
of food animals and meats in the whole Empire," the control 
of emergency slaughter and of traffic in the meat of diseased 
animals was required to be enforced. In Denmark there are seven 
public slaughterhouses with meat inspection. Furthermore, iu 
that country the exportation of slaughtered animals is subject to 
veterinary control by a decree of the Ministry of Agriculture. 
Plans are being made in Denmark for a general law, according to 
which universal meat inspection shall be introduced in all cities of 
more than 2,000 inhabitants, and also a meat inspection in rural 
districts in cases of emergency slaughter. In Norway and Sweden 
at the present time meat inspection is practiced in but one 



32 GENERAL DISCUSSION ON MEAT INSPECTION 

slaughterhouse, in spite of the law concerning communal slaughter 
houses of June 27, 1892. On the other hand, meat inspection 
in the cities of these countries has been organized according to the 
requirements of the law of July 27, 1895 ; and in Norway this has 
taken place in all cities of more than 4,000 inhabitants (Norwegian 
regulation of November 5, 1895, and August 3 and 6, 1897). Every 
Norwegian city of more than 4,000 inhabitants is compelled to 
establish a station for the investigation of meat. Strange to say, 
fees can not be charged for the inspection of meat, even for that 
which is introduced from foreign countries. For this reason it is 
very difficult for Norwegian cities to establish slaughterhouses with 
any prospect of an income. A new Swedish law concerning meat 
inspection and slaughterhouses of December 22, 1897, is designed 
to encourage the establishment of public slaughterhouses in Sweden 
with compulsory slaughter and examination, in order that the 
required sanitary guaranty may be given for meat intended for 
export to foreign countries. In the United States only such meat 
as is intended for export was first subject to inspection and this was 
on the basis of the meat inspection bill of August 30, 1890. In the 
year 1895 another law was passed according to which meat 
intended for internal traffic from cattle, sheep and hogs slaughtered 
in abattoirs, meat conserve factories, pickling houses and factories 
for working over meat products must be inspected by official 
inspectors. The reliability of American inspection, however, is 
rightfully questioned, since in American hams and bacon sides 
alleged to have been inspected, numerous trichinae were demon- 
strated in the subsequent inspection carried out in Germany. In 
the year 1896, 23,275,739 animals were inspected before and after 
slaughter by a total of 579 inspectors in 123 slaughterhouses which 
are located in 26 cities !* The American meat inspection law is 
distinguished from all other similar laws by the fact that it 
(Section 7, c) permits the return of condemned animals to the 
owner in case of a controversy concerning condemnation. The 
owner is then merely required to make a monthly report under 
oath as to what has been done with the condemned animals, and in 
case they have been sold he is required to state to whom, whether 
for use as food material, and whether under declaration, and also 



* Compare Bureau of Animal Industry, Bui 30, "Trichinosis in Germany." The 
author weakens his argument for the value of meat inspection by attacking the 
American system. The German method is poorly systematized as compared with 
ours, and it is hard for a German to understand how we can inspect animals so 
rapidly. — Translator. 



PRESENT STATUS IN CIVILIZED COUNTRIES 33 

whether all this has transpired after a previous sterilization or not. 
Finally, Japan has begun to introduce meat inspection in the large 
cities, since the consumption of the meat of domestic animals has 
become a more or less prevalent custom among the Japanese. 

Meat inspection in Belgium is regulated according to the royal 
edict of March 23, 1901, in connection with the pure food law 
of 1890. According to the requirements of this law, all meat in 
Belgium which is intended for human consumption is subject to 
official inspection. The only exception is the meat of hogs 
slaughtered for home consumption. Moreover, according to law, 
meat inspection is restricted to an investigation of slaughtered 
auimals. It is left to the discretion of local authorities to have 
an organized and official inspection of animals before slaughter. 
"The office of inspector can be conferred upon veterinary surgeons 
only." In communities in which the service may thereby be 
benefited, another person who has shown the required knowledge 
may be assigned as an assistant to the veterinary expert (assistant 
meat inspector). For the veterinary surgeon is reserved the 
inspection of horses ; all animals slaughtered on account of disease, 
or from necessity ; furthermore, all animals which have reacted to 
tuberculin or are otherwise suspected of being tuberculous, or in 
the inspection of which by practical meat inspectors, tuberculosis, 
actinomycosis, foot and mouth disease, measles, anthrax, black leg, 
pyemia, septicemia, swine erysipelas, sheep pox, sheep scab, 
paralysis, and other diseases were demonstrated or suspected.* 
Fresh' meat, with the exception of mutton, may be introduced from 
foreign countries only as whole animals, half animals, or quarters, 
together with the lungs. The introduction of the prepared meat of 
solipeds from foreign countries is forbidden. Likewise, meat which 
comes from foreign countries is to be officially inspected and 
stamped as foreign meat, " Etranger, vreemd." 

The Belgian law, in spite of sanitary objections which might 
be raised to the contrary, allows the introduction of canned meat 
and sausages from foreign countries. The inspection fees for 
foreign meat amount to 20 centimes per 100 kg. An appeal from 
the decision of the meat inspector is permitted within twenty-four 
hours. If the opinion obtained by the owner of the meat from 
a veterinarian of his choice is at variance with the previous 
opinion, the official veterinary inspector must decide the matter. 

The Italian regulation of 1890 prescribes : (1) obligatory in- 
spection of all food animals intended for human consumption ; 
(2) establishment of public slaughterhouses in communities of more 



34 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

than 6,000 inhabitants ; (3) entrusting of the direction and manage- 
ment of public slaughterhouses to veterinarians ; (4) destruction of 
dangerous meat ; (5) the utilization of non-dangerous meat from 
diseased animals upon freibanks. (This meat shall be stamped 
C. B. M. [cami bassa maceUaria, freibank meat]) ; (6) the strict 
regulation of the inspection of meat introduced from foreign 
countries. 

GERMANY. 

In Germany the following conditions prevailed up to the 
present time :* the Kingdoms of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Saxony, 
the Grand Duchies of Baden and Hessen, the Duchies Saxe- 
Coburg-Gotha, and Saxe-Meiningen, the principalities Schwarzburg- 
Kudolstadt, and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, as well as crownland 
Alsace-Lorraine, and the free cities Bremen, Llibeck and Hamburg, 
have possessed for a longer or shorter time a regular system of 
meat inspection. 

In the Kingdom of Bavaria, police regulations were passed for 
each kreis on the following dates : for Mittelfranken, February 18, 
1885; for Bheinpfalz, April 4, 1884; for Swabia and Neuburg, 
April 11, 1872 ; for upper Bavaria, June 2, 1862 ; for Oberfranken, 
June 24, 1881 ; for lower Bavaria, July 21, 1876 ; for Unterfranken 
and Aschaffenburg, September 10, 1874 ; and for Oberpfalz and 
Kegensburg, October 8, 1872. In the Kingdom of Wiirtemberg 
uniform inspection of slaughter and traffic in meat was introduced 
by the ministerial decree of August 21, 1879. The Kingdom of 
Saxony has had a meat inspection law since July 1, 1898. In the 
Grand Duchy of Baden a new regulation came into force through 
the meat inspection law of November 26, 1878 ; and in the Grand 
Duchy of Hessen by the meat inspection order of April 10, 1880. 
In the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen the decree of March 11, 1865, 
concerning meat inspection is still in force, while in the Duchy 
of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the general inspection of food animals and 
meat is regulated by an ordinance of December 22, 1891. In the 
principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt obligatory meat inspection 
was introduced by an ordinance of September 3, 1892, and in the 
principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, by the decree of April 
16, 1895. In Alsace-Lorraine meat inspection is regulated by police 
ordinances of December 13, 1897, and January 1, 1895. Finally, 

* The wording of the older ordinances concerning meat inspection may be found 
in Schlampp Die Fleischbeschau-gesetzgebung in den Samtlichen Bundesstaaten des 
Deutchen Reichs ; that of the newer in Zeit. f . Pleisch u. Milchhyg. 



PEESENT STATUS IN CIVILIZED COUNTEIES 35 

the free cities Bremen, Liibeck and Hamburg introduced obligatory 
meat control by decrees of the Senate, February 21, 1889 ; Septem- 
ber 10, 1884 ; and March 19, 1894. 

In the Kingdom of Prussia, the Grand Duchies Mecklenburg- 
Strelitz, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Saxe- Weimar-Eisenach ; in the 
duchies Anhalt, Brunswick, Oldenburg, as well as in the princi- 
palities Lippe and Reuss, general ordinances concerning obligatory 
inspection of all food animals were still wanting. Trichina inspec- 
tion existed as an obligatory or facultative measure. Furthermore, 
there were restrictions on the traffic in meat of diseased animals and a 
veterinary inspection of horses intended for slaughter was required. 
A control of cases of emergency slaughter was also practiced to 
some extent, and, on the basis of special slaughterhouse laws, a 
model meat inspection existed in a large number of cities. 

In the course of the last ten years, public slaughterhouses in 
Northern Germany have rapidly sprung up. For example, the 
number in the Kingdom of Prussia has increased during the last 
decade by 200. Meat inspection in the rural districts of Northern 
Germany was, however, still undeveloped. Furthermore, the in- 
spection of imported meat was defective and lacked uniformity 
throughout the whole German Empire, in so far as it was mainly 
restricted to the inspection of pork for trichina. The provisions of 
the imperial law of May 14, 1879, concerning the traffic in food 
materials, condiments and manufactured articles gave authority 
everywhere for supervision of the traffic in meat. These provisions, 
however, had no lasting effect, since it was not stated how the law 
should be enforced regarding the compulsory inspection. The 
Imperial law was designed merely to prevent, under threat of 
punishment, the traffic in defective meat. This kind of protection, 
however, is insufficient, since violations of the law are demonstrated 
only in isolated cases or accidentally and often after the bad results 
from the sale and consumption of injurious meat have been 
produced. 

For these reasons the passage of an imperial law concerning 
the obligatory inspection of all food animals before and after 
slaughter was demanded as a necessity. The significance which 
was ascribed to the passage of such a law appears in the words 
of Thronrede, in which the law was announced : ""In order to avoid 
the dangers which are connected with traffic in uninspected meat 
intended for human consumption, whether of domestic or foreign 
origin, the general introduction of the inspection of food animals 
and meat has been considered by the allied Regierungen. I hope 



36 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

that during this session you will prepare a bill regulating this, 
matter." 

Now the German Empire possesses, in the law of June 3, 1900,. 
concerning the inspection of food animals and meat, the foundation 
of a general uniform execution of meat inspection in all of the 
allied States. The passage of this law constitutes a mile post for 
public sanitation and veterinary science in Germany. After this 
law became effective, Germany became the first civilized country 
in which animal food was subjected to a regular official control, 
and veterinary science may point with pride to the fact that this 
significant hygienic result is partly due to the indefatigable efforts 
which the representatives of veterinary science have put forth for 
several decades toward introducing a general compulsory inspection 
of food animals and meat. 

4.— Practical Execution of Obligatory Meat Inspection. 

The practical execution" of obligatory meat inspection will 
assume a different form in large cities and in rural districts. 

Meat Inspection in Cities. — In cities, as well as in other 
communities with a considerable number of inhabitants, the erec- 
tion of public slaughterhouses and the necessity that all animals 
intended for human food should be officially inspected and 
slaughtered in such institutions, constitute the foundation of a 
proper system for regulating meat inspection. Stiles rightly says : 
"A well regulated system of slaughterhouses is as necessary to 
public health as is a well regulated system of schools to public 
education."* Without public slaughterhouses, obligatory meat 
inspection in large cities remains a half-way measure, for the 
reason that it is impossible, without an extensive system of 
officials, to supervise the traffic and slaughterhouses of individual 
butchers scattered here and there. The minimum number of 
inhabitants which requires the establishment of public slaughter- 
houses is in part determined by local conditions. It is desirable, 
however, that as many communities as possible be provided with 
general slaughterhouses. In the Prussian Regierungsbezirk of 
Oppeln, the construction of public slaughterhouses, stimulated by 
the Imperial Government, has progressed to such an extent that all 
cities of more than 5,000 inhabitants are provided with one. In 



* "The Country Slaughterhouse as a Factor in the Spread of Disease." (Year- 
book of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1896, pp. 155-166.) 



PRACTICAL EXECUTION OF OBLIGATORY MEAT INSPECTION 37 

"Wiirtemburg and Baden even the majority of small cities with 
3,000 or less inhabitants are provided with them. Similar con- 
ditions are observed in Alsace-Lorraine. In this region 18 of the 
69 public slaughterhouses are located in communities with less 
than 2,000 inhabitants. 

Public Slaughterhouses in the German Empire. — The 
number of public slaughterhouses in the German Empire is at 
the present time (1901) about 740, distributed as follows : Prussia, 
38 L; Bavaria, 77; Wiirtemberg, 62; Saxony, 33; Baden, 48; 
Hessen, 14; Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 10; Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 2; 
Saxe-Weimar, 3; Brunswick, 1 ; Saxe-Meiningen, 4 ; Saxe-Coburg- 
Gotha, 3; Anhalt, 4; Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, 1 ; Schwarzburg- 
Rudolstadt, 1 ; Lippe-Detrnold, 1 ; Alsace-Lorraine, 69 ; the Free 
<3ities, 3. 

There are no slaughterhouses in Oldenburg or Saxe-Altenburg. 
According to Schwarz, there are about 675 communities in the 
Oerman Empire with more than 3,000 inhabitants and about 400 
with more than 500 inhabitants which are still without a public 
slaughterhouse. 

Public Slaughterhouses in Prussia. — In the Kingdom of 
Prussia there are at present 381 public slaughterhouses which are 
distributed in the different proviuces as follows :* 

East Prussia, 42 ; West Prussia, 33 ; Pomerania, 21 ; Branden- 
burg, 28 ; Posen, 44; Silicia.t 55 ; Saxony, 21 ; Schleswig-Holstein, 
"2; Hanover, 21; Westphalia,, 44; Hessen-Nassau, 17; Rhine- 
province, 51 ; Hohenzollern, 2. 

Meat Inspection in the Rural Districts.— In rural dis- 
tricts and in very small communities, the erection of public 
slaughterhouses is out of proportion to their utilization. Moreover, 
in smaller communities the conditions are so aimple that slaughter- 
ing might be supervised without such institutions. We may, 
therefore, do without public slaughterhouses in rural districts. 
On the other hand, according to the example of the Regierenbezirk 
of Oppeln, the erection of communal or partnership slaughter- 
houses for neighboring small communities is to be recommended. 

* In the year 1890 the number of public slaughterhouses in the Kingdom of 
Prussia was 180. 

f Up to the year 1886 there were but six public slaughterhouses in Oppeln. 



38 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

Furthermore, as Lolioff has stated, it is at least desirable in rural 
districts that quarters be established for a meat inspector, an 
inspection station for imported meat, and a local freibank. 

The following may serve as a guide for the construction, 
equipment and management of public slaughterhouses in large 
communities, and slaughtering establishments in rural districts, the 
enforcement of compulsory inspection, and the accessory institu- 
tions which are inseparable from meat inspection (freibanks and 
the insurance of food animals). 

(a) Public Slaughterhouses in the Larger Communities. 

Structure and Equipment. — It should be distinctly remem- 
bered that the interests of the movement will be best served if the 
construction of public slaughterhouses is not entrusted to butcher 
unions, as frequently happens, but is kept within the control of 
the community itself. The fear of an insufficient income, which is 
entertained by certain communities, is quite unfounded, as is shown 
by the yearly reports on the management of corporation slaughter- 
houses. Communities have full power, by fixing the fees at the 
proper rate, to make the income and expenses balance each other. 
At any rate, when in exceptional cases a slaughterhouse is managed 
by a corporation under directions given by the local government, 
all cooperation in the choice of technical officials for meat coutrol 
must be prohibited to the corporation. It requires no argument to 
show that institutions designed for the public welfare serve their 
purpose only when directed by officials who labor in an objective 
manner and not when directed by interested industrial guilds. 

It is often asserted by the opponents of public slaughter- 
houses and of compulsory slaughtering in these places that the 
price of meat is increased by these institutions. This assertion is 
disproved by experience, as was first clearly demonstrated by 
H. Falk and recently by Kjerrulf, by means of the most painstaking 
statistical compilations. The fees for slaughter and inspection, 
which are devoted to the payment of the expenses of the manage- 
ment of the slaughterhouses, do. not cause an increase in the 
price of meat, since, by the utilization of public slaughterhouses, 
butchers save expenses in other directions. The butchers are no 
longer compelled to manage their own slaughterhouses ; they save 
the fuel required for heating the scalding water ; they realize the 
possibility of an economical utilization of cold storage and many 
other advantages. It appears, therefore, in this as in all other 



PRACTICAL EXECUTION OF OBLIGATORY MEAT INSPECTION 39 

industrial lines, that business can be conducted on a large scale 
cheaper than on a small one. 

Concerning the expenses and income of municipal public 
slaughterhouses, the opinion of the Imperial Saxon Commission for 
Veterinary Service of April 23, 1893, contains the statement that 
the establishment of a municipal public slaughterhouse in no sen.se 
financially embarasses the city and does not burden the citizens 
with new taxes, but that the capital devoted to the construction 
and management of a slaughterhouse is a good investment under 
all circumstances. The building fund may be obtained for 3| per 
cent, interest, but by the surplus of the business may be made 
to yield 5 to 6 per cent, and in the course of from 35 to 40 years 
the debt is extinguished. The community thus, in a certain sense 
without expense, becomes the owner of a valuable property free 
from all encumbrance. 

In the construction of slaughterhouses which must be used 
exclusively, consideration must be had for all requirements with 
regard to the supervision of the industry, the convenient occupation 
of the laborers, and the preservation of the meat. The chief 
requirements are sufficient stalls for the animals, roomy halls for 
slaughtering (German system), special arrangements for cooling the 
meat, and well-kept cold-storage plants for the preservation of the 
refrigerated meat.* 

The French room system, in comparison with the German hall 
system, has several disadvantages, especially in regard to the 
possibility of supervising slaughtering and the cleaning of the 
slaughter pens. The material for the construction of floors, ceilings, 
and walls is to be selected with a view to keeping the whole 
institution clean, and, in case of an emergency, to making possible 
a thorough disinfection. For convenience in cleaning the stalls 
and slaughtering stands, every abattoir must be provided with 
flowing water. For the isolation and slaughter of infections animals 
a separate slaughter hall with stalls (plague house, together with 
sanitary police slaughterhouses) is to be constructed ; and for 
carrying out careful investigations — aside from the service rooms 
of the meat inspectors — a post-mortem room and laboratory room 
for simple microscopical, bacteriological and chemical investiga- 
tions, together with accessories (stall for experimental animals), are 
required. Furthermore, attention should be given to the construc- 
tion of a special house for horses and a freibank with sterilizing 

* Compare Schwarz, "Bau, Einrichtung und Betrieb von offentlichen Schlacht- 
hofen." Second edition. Berlin: 1900. 



40 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

apparatus. For the artificial illumination of abattoirs with a view 
to the careful practice of meat inspection in the evening, only the 
electric light and the so-called millenium light (combustion of 
illuminating gas under high pressure and with strongly woven or 
double mantels) are suitable. Finally, attention should be given 
to another matter, which, unfortunately, heretofore has not been 
sufficiently considered, namely, apparatus in abattoirs which makes 
possible the disinfection or technical utilization of organs and 
whole animals which have been absolutely excluded from use as 
food. In small abattoirs in which the number of condemned parts 
and animals is inconsiderable, the burning of such parts is satis- 
factory. In other abattoirs, however, in which this procedure does 
not pay, arrangements should be made by means of which this 
refuse matter may be utilized to the best advantage. Attention 
should be called in this connection to the fact that, according to 
recent methods, it is possible to save as much as 20 per cent, of the 
original value of animals by a suitable utilization of the carcass, 
and that we are thus in a position to preserve a very considerable 
part of the national wealth for productive agriculture and thus to 
reduce the loss which agriculture would sustain through the con- 
demnation of individual organs and whole animals in consequence 
of meat inspection. Furthermore, the customary procedure, which 
has been quite general up to the present time, of turning over to 
knackers the animals and individual parts which have been ex- 
cluded from use as human food, can not be considered as a 
satisfactory solution of this problem. For experience has shown 
that the journey from the slaughterhouse to the knacker's estab- 
lishment and the disposition of the meat in such places offers 
abundant opportunity for underhand traffic with dangerous meat. 
Therefore, it is desirable that knackers' privileges, which are still 
to some extent in force in the eastern provinces of Prussia, should 
Vie withdrawn by the municipal authorities in accordance with the 
powers which they possess (law of May 31, 1858, and of December 
17, 1872). The knacker's legal right of coercion is touched upon in 
the imperial Prussian edict of April 29, 1872. According to this 
document, everyone in the judicial district is required to deliver 
to the knacker animals dead of infectious diseases, meat which has 
stood too long, and also animals which were found "unclean"* at 
slaughter (sheep excepted). That this edict is still in force is 
apparent from a decree of the Prussian Oberverwaltungsgerichfc 



* For the significance of the term "unclean," see page 



PKACTICAL EXECUTION OF OBLIGATORY MEAT INSPECTION 41 

of October 8, 1891, which stated this point explicitly and which 
declared a police regulation illegal in which a butcher was for- 
bidden to deliver a trichinous hog to the knacker who was permitted 
the coercion right upon animals in his district which were found 
upon slaughter to be unclean. It was also asserted that the claim 
of the knacker to the delivery of unclean animals was not merely 
of the nature of a private right ; for, in creating knackers' estab- 
lishments and granting them privileges with right of coercion, one 
of the objects aimed at was, by means of getting rid of dead and. 
diseased animals, under regulations established by the municipal 
authorities, to reduce the danger to health and to protect the 
inhabitants against epidemics. 

The legal right of coercion on the part of knackers must now 
be characterized as a hygienic anachronism ; 'for knackers' estab- 
lishments have in many instances failed to serve the purpose 
for which they were created. From the many examples, mention 
may be made only of the cases of criminal prosecution which have 
been brought within the past few years on account of the sale 
of knackers' meat by the knackers, their apprentices, butchers, 
and food dealers in Berlin, Hamburg, Hagen, Magdeburg, Barmen, 
Stassfurt, Glonn, Uffenheim, Meiderich, Grossgerau, Yilbel, Diis- 
seldorf, Dalheim and Breslau. In the case of the last named city, 
it was shown in the testimony that the knacker had for years 
■carried on an extensive business with the meat of measly and 
trichinous hogs, and that these facts had first been brought to 
the attention of the community when, in consequence of the con- 
sumption of the knacker's meat, three persons had been affected 
with trichinosis and two had died. 

In establishing public abattoirs, attention should also be 
directed to devices for the rapid and odorless destruction of the 
•dung and the contents of the stomach and intestinal tract of 
slaughtered animals and to the establishment of a direct connection 
with a railroad; to the construction of a special platform upon 
which animals imported from foreign countries are unloaded with- 
out coming in contact with native animals, and, finally, to the 
establishment of separate stalls for food animals imported from 
foreign countries.* 

Accessory Industries in Connection with Abattoirs. — 
Among the lines of industry (pickling cellars, smoking rooms, meat 

* With reference to the establishment of an abattoir to meet the requirements of 
modern times, consult the description of the new slaughterhouse and stockyard in 
Barmen by Koch, "Zeit. f. Pleisch- u. Milchhyg.," Vol. 4, No. 6. 



42' GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

mincing establishments, sausage factories, stripperies, skin salting; 
rooms, albumen and blood fertilizer factories, tallow factories, oleo- 
margarine factories, and inoculation establishments for securing 
vaccine) which are found occupying a part of abattoirs, only such 
are to be considered permissible as may be conducted without odor 
and without interfering with the real business of the abattoir. The 
skin salting industry, and especially the manufacture of oleomar- 
garine, are not suitable for inclusion in abattoirs, for the reason 
that they can not be conducted without an odor. On the other 
hand, institutions for obtaining animal sera may be very properly- 
connected with abattoirs. In order that in the construction of 
public abattoirs all the requirements demanded by the interests, 
of the various industries and by the sanitary police regulations 
may be literally fulfilled, it is desirable to follow the example of 
several cities which have appointed the future director at the very 
besrinnins of the work of construction of the abattoir in order that 
lie might be present to assist the architect in planning the insti- 
tution. Abattoirs are sanitary institutions in which veterinarians, 
perform their duties. The latter should, therefore, be called upon 
to cooperate in projecting the plan of the abattoir in so far as they 
may furnish suggestions for necessary details of structure and the 
most convenient equipment of the abattoirs. If this point were 
always observed, the number of public abattoirs with conspicuous 
defects in structure or arrangements would be much smaller. 

Connection of Slaughterhouses with Stockyards.— The 

connection of slaughterhouses with stockyards gives rise to the 
danger that plagues, especially foot-and-mouth disease, may be 
transmitted from slaughterhouses to the stockyards. As a means 
of preventing this, the Prussian Technical Deputation for the 
Veterinary Service (decree of the Minister for Agriculture, Public 
Domains and Forests for February 19, 1891, to all of the Rpgierung 
Presidents) recommended the following measures : If the trans- 
mission of plagues from slaughterhouses to stockyards is to be 
prevented with certaint} r , both establishments must be separated 
from each other in such a manner that no animals, feeding stuffs, 
dung, or other materials which are suspected of being contaminated 
with the contagium are transported from the slaughterhouse to 
the stockyard. Butchers and other persons who come in contact 
with animals in the slaughterhouses shall be allowed access to the 
animals in the stockyards only after their clothing and footwear 
have been subjected to a satisfactory cleaning process. It is 



PRACTICAL EXECUTION OF OBLIGATORY MEAT INSPECTION 43 

necessary to have an arrangement which does not permit animals 
which have been brought to the slaughterhouse to be driven away 
from it again without police permission. This permission is to be 
granted only in case the animals are to be transported by rail 
to another slaughterhouse under regulated veterinary police 
supervision. 

If there is connection between the stockyard and the slaughter- 
house, the latter must be connected with the railroad so that 
animals may be brought to the slaughterhouse directly or without 
contact with the stockyards. 

The introduction of animals with or suspected of having an 
infectious disease (pneumoni;), mange, foot-and-mouth disease) 
requires the erection of special platforms for unloading the animals 
and a large space (plague stall) for temporarily holding them. 

Moreover, suitable spaces (stalls and recesses) of sufficient 
number and size should be provided in connection with the 
slaughterhouse for the temporary reception of the animals. 

It is also a requirement of veterinary sanitation that the stalls 
and recesses be built in such a manner as to make possible the 
rapid escape of urine, and that the floor in them, including the 
passage ways beneath them, should be made of cement. 

A careful veterinary investigation of all animals brought to 
the stockyards is necessary at the time of their arrival and when 
they are taken away. For this purpose, long and broad platforms- 
should be constructed, upon which inspection of the animals may 
take place immediately after or immediately before they are loaded 
on the cars. For receiving and shipping small animals (sheep and 
hogs) it is desirable to have constructed two adjacent platforms 
with impervious floors, one of which may serve for loading and 
unloading the animals which are transported in the upper deck 
of the cars. Whenever it is necessary to drive or transport animals 
from the stockyards to the slaughterhouse, the utilization of a 
special passage way for this transportation is to be recommended, 
so as not to cross the passages of the stockyards through which 
export animals have passed. 

The stockyards should contain sufficient space for the con- 
struction of large halls, recesses and stalls. The spaces which 
serve for the reception of hogs must be arranged so as to be 
reached directly by special unloading platforms, so that the 
passages used for driving hogs in and out shall not be traversed by 
cattle and sheep. 

It is desirable also that the unloading or loading of sheep shall 



44 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

"be conducted separately from that of cattle in the stockyards. 
A large observation stall should be constructed in a suitable part of 
the stockyard and as near as possible to the slaughterhouse, and 
diseased or suspected animals which ought not to be brought 
directly into the slaughterhouse are to be received in this stall. 
The manure must be removed daily from the various enclosures ia 
the stockyards in which the animals stand and must be taken to 
the dung heap. The latter must be located outside of passages 
and places over which animals are driven. 

(b) Slaughterhouses in Eural Districts. 

In rural districts attention ought to be given to securing 
perfect cleanliness and satisfactory ventilation of the individual 
slaughtering places and of the spaces designed for the reception of 
slaughtered meat. The possibility of a technical inspection of the 
meat should also be provided for. The sterilization of confiscated 
meat should receive more serious' attention in the future in rural 
districts, and it is especially desirable to check the practice of 
simply throwing condemned organs upon the dung heaps. On this 
point stringent orders are issued in connection with the imperial 
meat inspection law. For the preliminary reception and denatural- 
izing of the confiscated meat, Lohoff recommends that hogsheads 
filled with creolin water should be placed in the yards of private 
slaughterhouses. 

In the Kingdom of Prussia tne following requirements are 
made in issuing permits for private slaughterhouses : 

The height of the butchering rooms shall be at least three 
meters and they must be of sufficient size to permit of windows on 
two opposite walls for light and ventilation. Or, if light and air 
enter the room from only one side, care must be taken to secure 
the construction of one or more air-shafts for ventilating purposes, 
if the free space of the room is not supplied with a sufficiently 
rapid change of air. The walls of the butchering room are to 
be covered with cement and are to be coated to the height of at 
least two meters with a light, not red, oil paint. The floor must be 
impervious to water and must not be planked. For the fluid 
refuse and bloody water, which can not be allowed to run into the 
general city sewer system, a water-tight cesspool must be provided, 
with a tight cover, as near as possible to the butchering mom 
and connected with it by a drain. Into this cesspool all wash 
water must be allowed to flow by gravity. In inhabited regions in 



PRACTICAL EXECUTION OF OBLIGATORY MEAT INSPECTION 45 

summer the cesspool is to be cleaned and disinfected after each 
slaughter; in the winter, twice a week. The solid slaughterhouse 
refuse is either to be removed immediately after slaughtering or 
collected in a special water-tight receptacle and covered with 
caustic lime until it is removed. 

The slaughterhouse must be so constructed that a view from 
the street is impossible. As a rule, slaughtering in the yard is 
to be prohibited. 

If a supply of pure water is not provided for in other ways, it 
should be acquired by the slaughterhouse being so placed that 
a spring is found in the yard, or water should be piped into the 
house. 

(c) Compulsory Inspection. 

For the satisfactory regulation of meat inspection, the funda- 
mental principle should be established that all animals intended as. 
food for man are to be inspected before and after slaughter. The 
exceptions which are made in older regulations in meat inspection 
with regard to small animals (sheep and hogs) and young animals 
are without hygienic foundation and are to be discontinued. For 
diseases frequently occur in small animals so as to render the meat 
dangerous or of inferior value as food. It is only necessary to call 
attention to tuberculosis and cysticerci in hogs, to erysipelas in 
these animals, to hog cholera and swine plague, as well as to 
the numerous organic diseases which occur not only in hogs but 
also in sheep and goats. With regard to young animals, it should 
be remembered that those pyemic and septic diseases, which have 
unfortunately become so well known through cases of meat 
poisoning, are not rare. Moreover, exceptions in favor of animals 
slaughtered for private use should not be made, for the person who 
slaughters them may not only injure himself by enjoying this 
exception, but also his family and servants. It should also be 
remembered that meat ostensibly slaughtered or alleged to be 
slaughtered for home consumption frequently comes into other 
hands, even if usually limited only to relatives. Thus in Berlin 
in the last twenty years sporadic outbreaks of trichinosis have 
frequently occurred after eating pork which had been slaughtered 
for private use outside of Berlin, and which, according to precepts 
of the regulations in the place of slaughter, was not required to 
be subjected to an examination on account of its being intended 
for private purposes. 



46 GENERAL DISCUSSION ON MEAT INSPECTION 

(D) FftEIBANKS. 

The introduction of so-called freibanks or similar institutions 
such as have long existed in southern Germany are inseparable 
from the regulation of meat inspection. Although public sanitation 
is primarily concerned in withholding dangerous meat from traffic, 
it has, nevertheless, the fuuctiou of determining that the traffic in 
meat shall be conducted in a proper manner. No more of the 
capital represented by food animals should be withdrawn from 
the national resources by confiscation than is absolutely necessary 
for the protection of human health. This tolerance is, moreover, 
indicated from a consideration of the production of the cheapest 
possible animal food for the greatest number of people. Far more 
human 'beings die from defective nutrition than from the harmful 
properties of meat. Moreover, the national resources suffer the 
loss of millions (Bollinger) when only one-half to three-fourths 
of one per cent, of the food animals which represent values of 
five to six milliards is excluded from consumption.* 

Some animals must therefore be admitted for human food 
although not in perfect health, but the meat of which must be 



* From April 1, 1892, to March 31, 1893, in 243 public slaughterhouses of the 
Kingdom of Prussia, 22,487 horses, 600,501 cattle, 914,216 calves, 916,962 sheep, 
4,720 goats, 8,678 other not separately counted calves, sheep and goats, and 1,873,266 
hogs were slaughtered, as well as an additional number of 30,056 horses in horse 
slaughterhouses. Of this total number, the following numbers were found unfit for 
human food : 152 horses = 0.3 per cent.; 4,067 cattle = 0.68 per cent. ; 1,171 calves 
= 0.13 per cent. ; 603 sheep = 0.066 per cent. ; 32 goats = 0.64 per cent. ; 6,297 hogs 
= 0.34 per cent. ; and parts of animals in the following numbers: 581 horses = 1.1 
per cent.; 65,891 cattle = 10.98 per cent.; 2,412 calves = 0.26 per cent.; 39,682 
sheep = 4.3 per cent.; 79 goats = 1.6 per cent.; and 59,267 hogs = 3.1 per cent. 
In the year 1896, in 321 Prussian slaughterhouses, 28,162 horses, 726,824 cattle, 
1,088,784 calves under six weeks of age, 1,093,997 sheep and goats, as well as 
3,018,367 hogs, were slaughtered. From this total the following numbers were with- 
held from the market as entirely unfit for food: 208 horses = 74 per cent.; 3,716 
cattle = 0.51 per cent. ; 1,892 calves = 0.17 per cent. ; 522 sheep and goats = 0.04 
per cent. ; 3,654 hogs = 0.12 per cent. ; and parts of animals in the following num- 
bers: 126 horses = 0.44 per cent.; 4,318 cattle = 0.59 per cent.; 414 calves = 0.079 
per cent. ; 2,267 sheep and goats = 0.2 per cent. ; and 4,984 hogs = 0.16 per cent. 

In the Kingdom of Saxony the following animals were slaughtered: 

Admitted to 
market without Delivered to 

restriction Destroyed the freibank 

Number Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 

1894 785,915 .... 99.18 .... 0.15 .... 0.66 

1896 876,000 .... 99.4 .... 0.13 .... 0.71 

1899 1,001,388 .... 99.13 .... 0.11 .... 0.76 



PRACTICAL EXECUTION OF OBLIGATORY MEAT INSPECTION 47 

regarded as harmless according to sanitary and experimental data. 
The number of these diseased animals admitted for food in the 
raw or cooked condition is very large (tuberculosis, swine ery- 
sipelas, swine plague, hog cholera, actinomycosis, measles and 
other parasitic diseases, icterus, bloody or watery meat, or meat 
of an abnormal odor). The meat of such animals should not be 
admitted to sale without restriction, since the consumer has the 
right to demand that in the open market only the meat of healthy 
animals or those which are affected with unimportant diseases — 
that is, products which are marketable or fit for food — shall be 
found. On the other hand, there is not the slightest objection 
to the sale of unmarketable meat or that which is conditionally 
fit for food in a special booth and with a declaration of its defects 
so that the purchaser may be fully apprised of the character of 
the meat he is about to purchase. The pure food law gives a 
legal basis for the institution of a proper traffic with non- 
marketable meat, for it allows the sale of " spoiled " — that is, 
non-marketable — meat under the necessity of a declaration.* 

The institution of a freibank, however, not only renders it 
certain that the consumer will obtain in the open market what 
he thinks he is buying, but it also makes it possible for the 
sanitary police to give permission under certain regulations 
and restrictions to traffic in meat ; — for example, measly meat 
after previous cooking, pickling, or preservation in cold storage ; — 
which in the absence of a freibank would be withheld from the 
market as dangerous to health — for example, the meat of measly 
animals — and destroyed. 

If it is said that the classification of meat as marketable and 
not marketable may offer difficulties, this must be admitted for 
individual cases on the border line ; but, even in these instances, 
a decision is much easier and simpler than when in the absence of 
a freibank we have to determine whether the meat is marketable or 
whether it should be destroyed. For in the latter case we have a 
sharp line of demarcation, while with the institution of a freibank, 
on the other hand, there is a broad boundary line between market- 
able meat and that which ought to be destroyed. 



* The terms "marketable" and "non-marketable" are old trade expressions 
which are associated with the legal measures of the old regulations of meat inspection 
and trade orders that only marketable meat should be sold in the ordinary meat 
booths, while non-marketable meat should not be sold there. " Suitable for market,'' 
"not suitable for market," "shop not clean," and "shop clean" are also synonymous 
terms. 



48 GENEKAL DISCUSSION ON MEAT INSPECTION 

From the standpoint of the tradesmen who see in the freibank 
an undesirable competition, many objections have been raised 
against the institution. One such objection is that meat inspectors, 
are not in a position in all cases to give a proper decision 
concerning the marketable or non-marketable character of the- 
meat. The answer to this objection is that which was given hy 
Bollinger to an opponent of the freibank. "Oar abattoir veter- 
inarians have to answer almost daily the questions which you have 
pat to me. Experiments in the laboratory as well as experience in 
in practice have taught that abattoir veterinarians are very com- 
petent to determine what meat shall be considered 'wholesome,' 
'inferior,' or 'dangerous to health.'' In consequence of the new 
regulation concerning the requirement of a guaranty in traffic with 
food animals which was brought about by public statutes for the 
German Empire and by imperial decree, it is pleasing to note,, 
as appears from the proceedings of the Twenty-second Session 
of German Butchers, that an interest in the proper utilization 
of harmless but inferior meat has been awakened among the 
butchers. 

It has been a universal experience that meat exposed upon the 
freibanks alwaj^s finds a ready sale on account of the smaller price 
which is associated with the declaration. No injustice is done any- 
one by the introduction of the freibank, for every person is free to- 
buy meat upon the freibank or not. "Volenti non fit injuria." 

In instituting a freibank, it is assumed that an underhanded 
traffic with non-marketable meat will be prevented. In ordinances 
with reference to this point, provision is to be made to permit, 
the sale of meat only in small quantities and exclusively to persons 
who are to eat it themselves and to exclude from patronizing the 
freibank all butchers, sausage makers, hotel and restaurant keepers,. 
as well as other middlemen. An effective control of the traffic with, 
freibank meat is possible, however, only in communities of not, 
too great an extent. In large cities in which this control is not 
possible, an institution similar to the freibank is to be provided 
in the place of the freibank, as, for example, in Berlin Here 
an attempt is made to eliminate the middleman and the dangers- 
connected with his business under certain circumstances, by not 
permitting unmarketable meat to be offered for sale except after 
cooking. 

The objections which were once raised by landowners, to the 
effect that agriculture might be injured by the institution of" 
freibanks, are quite unfounded. On the contrary, it is on agrir- 



PRACTICAL EXECUTION OP OBLIGATORY MEAT INSPECTION 49 

culture that the freibanks have conferred the most benefit, for they 
permit the legitimate utilization of the meat of animals which 
are not in perfect health, which meat was formerly either entirely 
destroyed or sold for merely nominal prices to a questionable class 
of butchers. As a pleasing evidence that this conviction lias taken 
root among the landowners, we must regard a decision arrived 
at several years ago by the German Agricultural Council to 
send representatives to the Reichsregierung and Landesregierungen 
in the interest of a general introduction of freibanks, since they 
were necessarily correlated with the practice of obligatory meat 
inspection. 

History of the Freibank. — The freibank and compulsory 
declaration for defective meat are old German institutions, the 
necessity for which became evident during the empirical regulation 
of meat inspection. Thus, the Augsburg charter (1276) prescribed 
that " any butcher who shall slaughter a measly animal shall sell it 
to no one without his knowing its condition." Such meat, in so far 
as its sale was permitted at all, could not be sold in the ordinary 
meat booths, but the sale must take place in a booth which was 
separate and some distance from the ordinary meat booths. The 
freibanks were sometimes called " measly-banks," for the reason 
that they served chiefly for traffic in measly meat. With regard to 
such "measly-banks," the charter of Wimpfen (1404) provided that 
they must be located three steps from the ordinary meat booths. 

The belief that in early times freibanks existed only in 
Southern Germany is not correct ; for, according to a butcher law 
in Hamburg in 1375, it was required that measly meat should be 
sold in a special booth and upon a white cloth. Similar require- 
ments were also in force in Liibeck and Stade. (Compare p. 16.) 

The institution of freibanks has become established also in 
Italy, Belgium and France, and this constitutes a further proof of 
their necessity. 

Present Distribution of Freibanks in Germany. — 

The institution of freibanks has for a long time existed in connec- 
tion with all the abattoirs in Bavaria, "Wurtemburg, Baden, Hessen, 
and Alsace-Lorraine. At present, moreover, the majority of 
abattoirs in northern Germany also possess freibanks. The intro- 
duction of freibanks was provided according to law simultaneously 
with obligatory meat inspection in the Duchy of Gotha (ministerial 
regulation of December 22, 1891). Furthermore, the imperial 



50 GENERAL DISCUSSION OP MEAT INSPECTION 

Prussian General President of Silesia and Posen conferred upon 
the presidents of the Regierungen the power to make every possible 
effort toward the introduction of freibanks. Accordingly, the 
president of the Regierung at Bromberg provided, by means of the 
police regulation of June 15, 1893, for the introduction of freibanks 
throughout his entire Begierung. In the year 1899, 345 of the 
381 public abattoirs in the Kingdom of Prussia were furnished 
with freibanks. 

The great economic value of freibanks is shown by the fol- 
lowing data : 

In the Kingdom of Saxony in 1892, 0.25 per cent, of the food 
animals which were inspected in the public slaughterhouses were 
entirely withdrawn from the market, while 0.42 per cent, were 
admitted for sale upon the freibank. In the year 1894 the per- 
centage of the total condemnations and consignments to freibanks 
were 0.15 and 0.66 per cent.; in the year 1899, 0.11 and 0.76 per 
cent. In the absence of freibanks, all of the food animals which 
were sold upon the freibank must have been entirely excluded from 
market ; and these conditions prevail wherever freibanks have not 
been introduced. 

In Leipsic, in 1891, the meat of 604 cattle, 89 calves, 28 sheep, 
983 hogs, and 104 parts of animals, with a total weight of 271,609 
kg., were utilized upon the freibank. The average proceeds from 
non-marl.etable animals, after deducting the expenses, were as 
follows: For cattle, 326 99 marks; for calves, 23.81; for sheep, 
22.3 ; for hogs, 90.63 ; viz., 58.3 pfennig per pound of beef, 44.2 per 
pound of veal, 54 5 per pound of mutton, and 57.4 per pound of 
pork. (The price of marketable meat was, for beef, 75.6 pfennig; 
for veal, 55.5 ; for mutton, 58 8 ; for pork, 61.) This same average 
of proceeds was attained in Leipsic in later years also. From these 
data it appears that the sale of meat on the freibank makes possible 
a quite extensive utilization of the meat of diseased animals. 

The determination of the price of freibank meat is left with 
the owner or seller of the meat, according to the industrial 
regulation. 

5.— Technical Supervision of the Meat Traffic. 

(a) Scientific Experts. 

Training. — It is now generally recognized that it is a part of 
the chief functions of veterinary medicine, through the supervision 
of meat inspection, to protect human health against danger from 






TECHNICAL SUPERVISION OF THE MEAT TRAFFIC 51 

eating meat. In this regard a very significant movement has taken 
place, since at present the special line of veterinary science — that 
is, meat inspection — which was previously held in less esteem, 
is no longer without proper consideration. The most satisfactory 
recognition of the improvement of meat inspection was given by the 
deliberations of the German Reichstag concerning the estimates cf 
entrance qualifications for students of veterinary science. It was 
thereby made plain that for the practice of meat inspection in 
the German Empire the proper qualifications for the study of 
veterinary science must be required. This movement is based 
upon the recognized fact that meat inspection is not a subordinate 
branch of science, but that comprehensive attainments and a 
thorough, practical education are necessary to its proper mastery 
and practice. 

The rather fragmentary training in meat inspection which the 
student of veterinary science previously received during his course 
of study could not be considered as sufficient. Meat inspection 
had to become a separate subject of study, receiving special atten- 
tion at the veterinary institutions, and this has been done in 
Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Switzerland, England, America 
and Japan. "With reference to the importance and responsible 
position of veterinarians as technical officials in the realm of 
veterinary hygiene, it is the duty of the State, besides giving 
attention to the highest possible training of these men, to furnish 
special instruction in hygiene and the pathology of human food 
materials " (Bollinger). In this connection it is also greatly to be 
desired that the practical training of the future veterinarian in meat 
inspection should be obtained by a practical course of several 
months' duration at one of the larger abattoirs. The Imperial 
Wiirtemburg Regierung has officially recognized the necessity 
of such special training in so far as it requires for admission to the 
public examination in veterinary science, by which the chief 
official veterinarians are selected, proof of practice for a period of 
at least two months in one of the larger public slaughterhouses 
under regulated veterinary police control and in the inspection 
station of one of the larger cities for meat which is imported from 
foreign countries.* This example has been followed in Prussia and 
Saxony, as well as in the Grand Duchy of Hessen, in so far as meat 

* By proclamation of the Imperial Wiirtemburg Ministry of the Interior, 
October 28, 1897, it is provided that candidates must have had practice in a city of at 
least 30,000 inhabitants, fulfilling all the prescribed requirements, and in the inspec- 
tion station of such a city. 



52 GENERAL DISCUSSION ON MEAT INSPECTION 

inspection is included among the examination subjects, at least for 
official veterinarians. It is hoped that a provision similar to th;it 
of Wurtemburg will be made by the other Regieruugen, not only 
for official veterinarians, bat also for all veterinarians who are- 
appoiuted as managers of public slaughterhouses. 

The suggestion made by Melchers, that only those veterinarians- 
should be appointed as managers of abattoirs who have passed 
through a preliminary service of at least one year at one of the 
larger abattoirs with modern equipment, and after the completion of 
this preliminary service have passed a special examination, deserves 
much consideration. The title, Sanitary Veterinarian, should be 
conferred upon such veterinarians. In the interest of the better 
training of veterinarians in the subject of meat inspection, the 
change in the examination requirements in Germany for veterina- 
rians, as recommended by Schmaltz, is to be characterized as- 
highly desirable. Schmaltz proposed that meat inspection be- 
added to the first section of the examination as an obligatory 
subject of examination. At present only a part of the candidates 
in veterinary science in Germany are examined in meat inspection, 
and even this part only on theoretical subjects and not on practical 
ones. Such a test can not be'Considered as sufficient for a profes- 
sion of such practical significance as meat inspection. In Hungary 
and in Switzerland meat inspection has already been made a. 
theoretical and practical subject of examination in public veterinary 
examinations. 

Special examinations for slaughterhouse veterinarians are 
already in existence in France. The Central Police Bureau of Paris 
makes the appointment of abattoir veterinarians depend upon 
the veterinary candidate passing an examination prepared by 
the Director of Meat Inspection in Paris. The examination is 
both written and oral ; the written part includes a treatise on some- 
subject in anatomy or pathology ; the preparation of a report 
concerning the violation of. the meat inspection law or other 
regulations. The practical part of the test falls into three sections : 
Ifirst, inspection of the meat of a diseased animal and diaguosis 
of the disease ; secondly, determination of parts and organs 
of a body according to anatomical characteristics ; and thirdly, 
microscopic examination of pathological alterations and parasitic: 
diseases. 

In the United States also special examinations have been 
introduced for veterinarians who are to be appointed as meat, 
inspectors. 



TECHNICAL SUPERVISION OF THE MEAT TRAFFIC 53 

Compensation and Appointment.— In return for their 
■difficult and responsible duties, veterinarians who are intrusted 
with the practice of meat control should receive a commensurate 
compensation. In southern Germany this is commonly too small, 
due to the fact that ideas of former times, in which the pur- 
chasing power of money was higher, are still prevalent. Further- 
more, the fees for meat inspection should be paid to the meat 
inspectors by the municipal authorities, who should retain the 
right to collect the fees from the tradesmen. Finally, the attempt 
should be made to appoint the veterinarians who officiate at 
abattoirs as high communal officials for life and with right to a 
pension. For only under such circumstances '-can it be expected 
that the best veterinarians will devote themselves to abattoir 
-service and will discharge their duties in the strictest manner, 
unbiassed by friendship or enmity. In a memorial of the Society 
•of Abattoir Veterinarians of the Rhine Province presented to the 
Prussian lower house, attention was called to the fact that the 
interests of meat inspection, which coincide with those of the 
public, are frequently opposed to the interests of butchers who 
operate in the abattoirs, and that the butchers are only too 
strongly inclined to regard in a personal manner measures which 
the director of the abattoir must enforce in the interests Of the 
public. Since, however, the butchers in small communities exercise 
an indirect or direct influence as tax-paying citizens upOn the 
municipal corporation, the position of the director of an abattoir, 
who is not appointed permanently, frequently becomes very un- 
certain, if he discharges his duties in a conscientious manner. 

Fees. — In the veterinary district of Oberfranken the fees for 
the inspection of a large animal before and after slaughter amount 
to 24 pfennige, and for a small animal, 12 pfennige. These rates 
were reasonable at a time when the meat which was inspected had 
but little value and was offered for sale at a few pfennige- per 
pound.* In northern Germany the fees, corresponding to our 

* According to a quotation from the cities of Berlin and Cologne for the year 
1661, the price of meat was fixed at the following rates: 

The best pound of beef 1 groschen 

A pound of beef nest to the best 11 pfennige 

The poorest 10 pfennige 

A pound of veal shall be worth 1 groschen 3 pfennige 

A pound of fattened mutton 1 groschen 4 pfennige 

A pound of pork, as low as. . . ... 1 groschen 6 pfennige 

The best and fattest pork, per pound 2 groschen 



54 GENERAL DISCUSSION ON MEAT INSPECTION 

present money values, are much higher. Thus, for example, the 
meat inspection ordinance in Goch fixes the following rates^, ; For 
one horse, 2 marks ; for one beef animal, 2 marks ; for one hog, 
1 mark; for one sheep, goat or calf under ten weeks of age, .75 
mark; for one-half of a large animal or smaller parts, 1 mark; for 
one-half of a small animal or smaller parts, two-thirds of the fee. 
For the Regierungsbezirk of Oppeln, the following fees were fixed : 
For a horse or beef animal, 1.5 marks ; for a hog, except in case of 
trichina inspection, 1 mark; for a goat, sheep or calf under six 
weeks of age, 5 mark. 

If the inspector of animals for the abattoir is at the same time 
meat inspector for the investigation of trichina, he receives a fee of 
1^ marks for the complete inspection of a hog. 

Appointment of Abattoir Veterinarians. — Section 56 6 , 
Title V, of the Prussian Municipal Order, prescribes as follows 
concerning municipal officers: "The appointment shall be made 
for life except in cases of mere temporary service. Subordinate- 
officials who are occupied with mechanical work may be employed 
subject to removal." 

Section 65, Title V, of the Municipal Order prescribes a pen- 
sion allowance for municipal officials who are appointed for life. 
Accordingly, abattoir veterinarians must be appointed for life and 
with a pension allowance; as, for example, the Royal Prussian 
Regierung at Armsberg decreed August 2, 1888 : " The director of 
an abattoir is a municipal official, since this position does not 
involve mechanical work or temporary service." 

Moreover, according to a decision of the Prussian Court of 
Administration of November 20, 1881, abattoir veterinarians must 
be appointed for life and with a pension allowance, for the reason 
that, on the one hand, official authority is exercised (release or 
confiscation of the meat), and since, on the other hand, the occu- 
pation in which they engage does not belong to the industrial 
occupations or those which are established simply for securing 
an income for the city. 

In the interest of the public, it is not to be considered as 
permissible that the city authorities should exclude the allowance 
of a pension for municipal officers who are appointed for life 
by conditions named in the contract of appointment. 

(The opinion of the Prussian Court of Administration of Sept. 
26, 1885; compare also Wysocki, Ztschr. f. Fleisch u. Milchhyg.,, 
Tol. 3; and the decision of Reichsgericht of Sept. 12, 1892.) 



TECHNICAL SUPERVISION OF THE MEAT TRAFFIC 55 

i 

According to the new Prussian law concerning the appointment 
and maintenance of communal officials, every appointment must be 
made, upon the basis of a written contract. The ordained ad- 
ministrative officers (Regierung presidents or state councillors) 
determine whether the communal authorities proceed with legal 
exactness in installing the official. In the appointment of officials, 
it is necessary to adhere to the principle that authoritative- func- 
tions shall be exercised exclusively by officials, while the com- 
munities retain the right to accept in civil service persons who are 
exclusively occupied with the management of industrial affairs and 
are not empowered to act on behalf of the government. According 
to the text of the law and a ministerial commentary to the laws, 
abattoirs and stockyards, as a rule, belong to municipal industries. 
The officials of abattoirs and stockyards may therefore be appointed 
by notification by means of a private contract. This fact, however, 
does not exclude the possibility that official authority may be 
granted to certain persons appointed to service in these industries 
if they are to be allowed to exercise authority in the way of police 
regulations. The necessity for such an arrangement with regard 
to the foremen of abattoirs is recognized in the ministerial 
proclamation, for the reason that the order for the delivery of 
inferior meat to the freibank must be entrusted to them. 
Malkmus rightly contended that this necessity should also be 
recognized with regard to other abattoir veterinarians, for the 
reason that they must daily exercise police authority (confiscation 
of individual parts, preliminary confiscation of whole animals), 
if the reliability of meat inspection is not to be called in ques- 
tion. According to Oeriel (Municipal Ordinance for the Six 
Eastern Provinces, 2d ed., Liegnitz, 1893), all abattoir veterinarians 
in Prussia belong to the higher municipal official class (compare 
Melchers, Ztschr. f. Fleisch u. Milchhyg., vol. 4). In order to 
avoid subsequent proceedings, it is desirable that the power of 
higher municipal officials should be conferred upon abattoir 
veterinarians, as well as a life-long appointment with provision 
for a pension. This may be accomplished by special contract 
before the acceptance of the position (see Bohlen, Zeit. f. Fleisch 
u. Milchhyg., vol. 4). 

Number of hours of service. — The number of daily work- 
ing hours for a responsible service of abattoir veterinarians should 
be confined within such limits that meat inspection may be always 
practiced in a reliable manner. (Compare the decree of the Royal 



56 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

Bavarian Kegierung of Rheinpfalz ; also Ostertag, Zeit. f. Fleisch u. 
Milcbhyg., vol. 4.) . 

The number of food animals which can be inspected 
in a day by an expert. — Henschel, on the basis of several 
years' experience in a Berlin abattoir, states that during one day's 
■work a veterinarian at an abattoir may carefully inspect, before and 
after slaughter, 75 cattle, or 250 calves, or 200 hogs, or 400 sheep. 
In estimating the number of hogs, it is presupposed that in an 
inspection for cysticerci an assistant meat inspector (stamper or 
sampler) shall be on duty. In exceptional cases, the number of 
animals inspected may exceed the above figures by one-third or 
one-half.* 

(b) Assistant Meat Inspectors. 

Necessity for training and limitation of their functions. 

— The number of veterinarians in Germany is not sufficient to 
enable them to carry out the requirements of meat inspection 
without assistants. For the control of slaughtering in the country, 
assistant or empirical meat inspectors are to be appointed as their 
assistants, according to the method already put in practice with 
excellent results in southern Germany. The training of the 
assistants should have taken place at abattoirs under the direction 
of veterinarians. A theoretical training of the meat inspector is 
quite insufficient for his later duties, but an authority for rendering 
decisions commensurate with their limited information should be 
granted to empirical meat inspectors who have been educated in 
a practical manner. They should have the right of rendering 
decisions only in the case of perfectly healthy animals, or in cases 
of diseases which are perfectly evident. In all other cases of 
disease, and especially in emergency slaughter, the assistant meat 
inspectors should be required to obtain the decision of the local 
veterinarian through the instrumentality of the police officials. 
Furthermore, a fixed order of inspection must be obligatory upon 
assistant meat inspectors, in order that the actual determination of 
the diseases which occur in food animals may be made certain. 

A principle proclaimed in Belgian and southern German 
ordinances is worthy of general approval. According to this 
principle, in communities in which there is a veterinarian, he is 



* These figures are not applicable to the more systematic method of inspection 
practised in America. — Translator. 



TECHNICAL SUPERVISION OF THE MEAT TRAFFIC 57 

iirst to be called to make an inspection Of meat, and exceptions can 
lie taken to this rule only with the permission of the Regierung. 
The assistant meat inspectors are to be required to keep accounts 
of their operations. They are to be visited without previous 
notice as frequently as possible by official veterinarians on their 
inspecting trips, and are to be re-examined from time to time — 
say every two years. In order to increase the responsibility of 
the assistant meat inspectors, and also their authority with regard 
to tradesmen, they should be given an official character in the 
manner already practised in southern and middle German allied 
States where meat inspection is a regular institution. The salary 
of assistant meat inspectors, like that of scientific experts, should 
be provided for in proper manner by the communities. 

With reference to the training of meat inspectors, the following 
opinion was handed down August 13, 1896, by the Royal Prussian 
Technical Deputation for Veterinary Service : " The simple theo- 
retical knowledge of the contents of paragraphs of the regulations 
-and provisions of the service are not sufficient evidence of the 
fitness of a layman (merchant) to practice the inspection- of food 
animals. The inspector must be able to demonstrate- in healthy 
and diseased living and dead animals that he actually possesses the 
knowledge which is presupposed in the regulations; and that he can 
make a practical application of it. Otherwise there would be the 
greatest danger that the' meat inspector would allow' meat which 
was dangerous- to health to appear on' the market."' 1 The- ducal 
public veterinarian, Georges von Gotha, made the following 
arrangement, which is worthy of imitation. The assistant- 'meat 
inspectors are assembled twice yearly by means of the bezifk 
veterinarians. At these meetings general reports are presented by 
the meat inspectors, and they receive further education through 
the discussion of noteworthy cases by the bezirk veterinarians. 

The inadmissibility of the appointment of empirical 
meat inspectors in abattoirs. — Empiric meat inspectors have 
in some instances been appointed as superintendents of abattoirs in 
small, poor communities. This procedure is not to be approved. 
Only veterinarians should be appointed as directors of slaughter- 
houses. This is also in the interest of the communities. For, by 
the appointment of a veterinary director of an abattoir, the 
-expenses are avoided which come from the inevitable veterinary 
revisions in the case of the empirical management of an abattoir, 
and this is true without taking into consideration the fact that the 



58 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

veterinary director of an abattoir furnishes greater security for 
the proper execution of meat control than a lay director.* 

A decree of the Royal Prussian Begierung President at Gum- 
binnen, August 11, 1396, prescribes that as a general rale only 
approved veterinarians shall be appointed as expert officials in 
public slaughterhouses in the sense of the Prussian abattoir law of 
March 11, 1869, and March 9, 1881, and that the inspection of food 
animals and meat shall be entrusted exclusively to them. 

Indirectly, the compulsory appointment of veterinary directors 
of abattoirs was decreed in the Kingdom of Saxony by the regula- 
tion concerning the sale of the meat and fat of diseased animals, 
December 17, 1892. For, according to this regulation, the utiliza- 
tion of the meat of trichinous and tuberculous animals is permitted 
only in abattoirs which are under the supervision of veterinarians. 
In fact, the large number of tuberculous animals which may be 
utilized in this way serves as an inducement to larger communities 
in the kingdom to establish abattoirs and to appoint veterinary- 
experts exclusively for their supervision. 

Examination and control. — Examination and control of 
assistant meat inspectors, including trichina inspectors, should be 
in the hands of veterinarians. The physicians in northern 
Germany who in former years took part in the education and 
supervision of trichina inspectors, were not so well prepared for 
this duty by their course of study as are veterinarians. Steinbach. 
justly contends that these functions should be exclusively entrusted 
to veterinarians, since it is usually a question of determining animal 
diseases, for which only the curriculum of veterinary science is. 
calculated to prepare one. In recognition of this fact, the inspec- 
tion of horse meat was everywhere put into the hands of veter- 
inarians for veterinary police reasons. It is, therefore, merely a, 
logical sequence that all other branches of meat inspection should 
be placed under the supervision of veterinarians, especially since 
the sanitary police interests which come into consideration possess. 
no less importance than the veterinary police interests in the 
inspection of horse meat. It is gratifying to note that this, 
conclusion is drawn in the new Prussian kreis-physician law. 
This law prescribes (Sections 79, 80) that " the supervision of the 

* It is quite worthy of mention that the Brandenburg Butchers' Unions sent 
representatives to the Royal General* President of the Province of Brandenburg to» 
request that only veterinarians should be appointed as meat inspectors throughout 
the whole province, or at any rate in communities of more than 2,000 inhabitants. 



TECHNICAL SUPERVISION OF THE MEAT TRAFFIC 59 

traffic in meat, the establishment and management of slaughter- 
houses, are, so far as the technical side of the matter is concerned, 
primarily an affair of official veterinarians." 

(c) Methods of Appeal. 

In cases in which the tradesman is not satisfied with the 
decision of the meat inspector, he has the right to appeal to the 
judgment of a higher authority. In case of a decision by an 
assistant meat inspector, the higher decision lies within the pro- 
vince of the local veterinary expert. In other cases, in which 
recourse is sought against the decision of a veterinarian, the 
regulation of super-revision, in accordance with the Belgian law, 
is to be recommended (compare p. 33). Melchers proposes in this 
connection the following modifications of the method of appeal : 
The tradesman, within twenty-four hours at the outside limit, must 
appeal to the first expert and the authorities who are immediately 
over him, and must give the name of the expert whom he has 
chosen to give the contrary opinion. The latter individual is 
hereupon to be summoned by the authorities. If the judgment of 
the witness for the plaintiff agrees with that of the first expert, the 
decision as first rendered shall be enforced ; while in case of a 
disagreement the matter may be dropped or a request for an 
opinion may be made upon the highest local veterinary authority. 
The highest veterinary authorities in Prussia are the Department 
veterinarians ; in Bavaria, the kreis-veterinarians ; and in other 
countries, the corresponding official veterinarians of high degree. 
Finally, in case of questions of fundamental importance, an appeal 
may be made to the court of last resort (the Veterinary Com- 
mission), which will decide the question according to the legal 
testimony. 

It is unreasonable to assess the costs upon the tradesman 
under all conditions, as has happened in certain meat inspection 
regulations. The costs are justly to be defrayed by the losing 
party, and in case the opinions of the expert are set aside, the costs 
are to be borne by the community in which he is serving. 

A police regulation for the Regierungsbezirk of Minister, 
dated May 7, 1897, prescribes with regard to this matter, "if the 
decision of the meat inspector is finally considered as unjust, the 
costs which are incurred by the owner in securing the higher 
opinion are to be borne by the local police authorities. The local 
police authorities likewise shall bear the costs when they make 
request for a final decision from these officials." 



60 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

6. — Municipal Ordinances Concerning the Regulation of 
Meat Inspection. 

In the interest of a uniform practice of meat inspection, 
inioerial or state laws should be enacted concerning the control of 
meat traffic, with detailed specifications concerning the manner in 
which they are to be executed. Nothing is calculated to bring 
meat inspection into greater disrepute than a lack of uniformity in 
the practice of meat inspection in one and the same country. This 
becomes apparent whenever the regulation of meat inspection is 
left entirely in the hands of the provincial or Bezirk-Regierungen 
or of individual communities. 

On account of the important position which meat from its 
varied nature occupies with regard to other food materials, it is not 
practicable to consider it in laws concerning food stuffs together 
with other food materials and condiments. It has become apparent 
in Germany that the legal provisions concerning food materials can 
not' be applied in general to meat without doing violence to the 
construction of the law. Regard should therefore everywhere be 
had to the passage of special meat inspection laws. 

In the imperial or state lawsuit must be specified that all food 
animals are to be inspected before 1 or after slaughter by veter- 
inarians or assistant meat inspector^. Furthermore, the state 
laws' must 1 contain principles for directing the establishment of 
slaughterhouses and for the procedure with the meat of healthy 
and diseased animals. In regard to the latter question, they should 
particularly specify that the meat which is to be admitted freely to 
the market shall be stamped with a certain mark, and, furthermore, 
that meat which is excluded from the market shall be technically 
utilized in the proper manner, and, finally, that in certain diseases 
of food animals the meat, after cooking, pickling, or other suitable 
treatment, may be delivered to freibanks for sale under certain 
restrictions. In the meat inspection laws, the authority of the 
officials of meat inspection to make unannounced visits of inspec- 
tion upon butchers should be regulated. 

The provisions of state laws concerning the control of the 
traffic in meat are to be supplemented by stringent regulations for 
enforcing these laws. In these regulations the details should be 
carefully Worked out concerning the appoiutment and compensation 
of expert meat inspectors, concerning the training, examination, 
control and subsequent examination of empirical meat inspectors ; 



SUMMARY 61 

concerning the order of super-revision ; concerning the location and 
equipment of slaughterhouses, the establishment of freibanks, and 
the trade restrictions upon freibank meat, as well as concerning the 
disinfection of parts and whole animals which are absolutely 
excluded from use as food. 

It is not desirable to make further specifications concerning 
the practice of meat inspection in the state laws and in the 
regulations for enforcing these laws. Thus, it would not be in 
accordance with the purpose of meat inspection to lay down prin- 
ciples concerning the sanitary police procedure with the meat of 
diseased animals. The scientific side of meat inspection is still in 
a developmental stage, and the investigations in this field are 
continually bringing to light new points of view with regard to 
i lie utilization of the meat of diseased animals. It is therefore 
desirable that the regulation of this part of meat inspection should 
be left to the ministerial authorities, who, supported by the 
opinions of scientific central authorities, may prescribe a procedure 
with the meat of diseased animals in accordance with the progress 
of the science of meat inspection at any given time. In this 
connection it is of great importance that the ministerial decree can 
go into effect much more quickly than a law which comes into 
existence after a long and tedious process and the passage of which 
does not depend exclusively upon scientific factors. 

Summary. 

The most essential requirements for the execution of obligatory 
meat inspection consist of the following measures : The estab- 
lishment of public slaughterhouses and the introduction of com- 
pulsory slaughter in these institutions in all the larger communities ; 
compulsory inspection for all food animals intended for human 
consumption, both before and after slaughter; ample encourage- 
ment of the science of meat inspection at the veterinary high 
schools ; training and appointment of empirical meat inspectors 
with restricted powers to render decisions concerning diseased 
animals in country districts ; veterinary supervision of all slaughter- 
ing which is done in abattoirs as well as all outside slaughtering 
in cases which can not be disposed of by the assistant meat 
inspectors. In addition to the special training of veterinarians in 
meat inspection in the curriculum provided for them, the introduc- 
tion of a special course for abattoir and official veterinarians, the 
enactment of public laws concerning meat inspection with ex- 



62 GENERAL DISCUSSION OF MEAT INSPECTION 

liaustive provisions for their enforcement, especially laws concern- 
ing the uniform regulation of the traffic in unmarketable meat, as 
well as concerning the destruction or most advantageous technical 
utilization of the parts and whole animals which are absolutely- 
excluded from use, should go hand in hand with the measures 
mentioned above. 

These measures point to a goal which, on account of its 
importance to the public welfare, it should be the object of every 
civilized country to attain. When this goal is attained, the 
sanitary condition of the population will be improved, honest 
traffic in meat and meat products will be created, and, finally, a 
beginning will have been made in the improvement of the health 
of our domesticated animals which are at present so excessively 
parasitized and infected with disease. 

The most important condition to the attainment of this goal 
is the education of industrious, reliable experts to whom the 
execution and supervision of meat inspection may be entrusted. 
The chief functions of practical meat inspection (careful investiga- 
tion of all auimals before and after slaughter, a most accurate 
determination of all variations from the normal condition, a scien- 
tifically and legally correct separation of marketable and non- 
marketable meat, and the sanitary destruction of organs and whole 
animals which are excluded from use) are such important duties 
and so intimately connected with general sanitation and the 
national welfare as to make it evident that they should be under- 
taken only by thoroughly trained experts. A defective knowledge 
of the subject is most bitterly avenged in meat inspection. Either 
it allows meat dangerous to health to pass upon the market or 
causes a loss to the national resources by unjust condemnations. 



II. 

THE IMPERIAL LEGAL FOUNDATION FOR THE REGU- 
LATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT IN GERMANY. 



All state laws, ministerial decrees, regulations of the govern- 
ments and local police orders must, so far as exceptions are not 
expressly permitted, be confined within the bounds of the provisions 
of the imperial law. If the state laws, ministerial decrees, police 
regulations, municipal ordinances, etc., overstep the limits pre- 
scribed by the imperial law, they are legally ineffective and 
^violations of them can not be punished by the criminal justices. 

The foundation for the regulation of meat traffic in the German 
Empire is henceforth laid by the imperial law of June 3, 1900, 
concerning the inspection of food animals and meat. Moreover, 
in rendering opinions on the meat of diseased animals and in 
the organization of meat inspection, the other imperial laws, copies 
of which are given below, come into consideration, at least in a part 
of their provisions. 

1.— The Imperial Law of June 3, 1900, Concerning the 
Inspection of Food Animals and Meat.* 

Sec. 1. Cattle, swine, sheep, goats, horses and dogs, the meat 
of which is intended to be used as food for man, shall be subjected 
to an official inspection both before and after slaughter. By 
decision of the Federal Council, obligatory inspection may be 
extended to other food animals. 

In case of emergency slaughter, the ante-mortem inspection 
may be omitted. 

The following are to be considered as cases of emergency : 
When there is reason to fear that the animal may die before the 
arrival of the proper local inspector, or that the meat may become 



* The translation of the imperial law as published in the Report of Bur. Anim. 
Ind. for 1900 has been followed with slight alterations.— Translator. 



64 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

materially reduced in value owing to aggravation of the diseased" 
condition, or when, in consequence of an accident, the animal must, 
be killed immediately. 

Sec. 2. In the case of food animals the meat of which is' 
intended to be used exclusively in the owner's own household, the 
ante-mortem inspection may be omitted whenever the animals do 
not present any signs of disease which would exclude the fitness 
of their meat as food ; the post-mortem inspection also may be 
omitted whenever such indications of disease are likewise not 
revealed during the killing and dressing. 

Traffic in meat the inspection of which has been omitted on 
the ground of Sec. 2, paragraph 1, is forbidden. 

As "own household" in the sense of Sec. 2, paragraph 1, are 
not to be considered : The household of the barracks, hospitals, 
educational institutions, restaurants, prisons, almshouses and 
similar institutions, nor the household of the butchers, meat 
dealers, nor of hotels, saloons and restaurants. 

Sec. 3. The federated governments are authorized to order 
the inspection, at places where and times when a communicable 
animal disease prevails, of all food animals exposed to said disease. 

Sec. 4. Meats, in the sense of this law, are fresh or prepared 
parts of warm-blooded animals, so far as these parts are edible. 
Fats and sausages prepared from warm-blooded animals are also 
considered as " parts "; other products, however, only so far as the 
Federal Council orders. 

Sec. 5. For the furtherance of inspection, districts shall be 
established; at least one inspector and one deputy inspector shall 
be appointed for each of such districts. 

The establishment of the inspection districts and the appoint- 
ment of the inspectors devolve upon the federated governmental 
authorities. For the inspections to be performed in the military 
preserved meat factories there may be special inspectors appointed 
by the military authorities. 

Official recognized veterinarians, or other persons who have 
demonstrated a sufficient knowledge, are to be appointed as 
inspectors. 

Sec. 6. If during the inspections there is shown the presence 
or the suspicion of a disease for which compulsory notification 
exists, action is to be taken in accordance with the regulations 
in force governing the case at hand. 

Sec. 7. If the ante-mortem inspection does not furnish any 
ground for preventing slaughter, the inspector shall permit it to 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 65 

take place under any special precautions which in his judgment 
should be adopted. 

The slaughter of the animal presented for inspection shall not 
take place before permission is given, and then only under the 
special precautionary measures ordered. 

If slaughter does not take place at latest two days after 
permission is given, then it shall be allowable only after a re- 
inspection and a second permit. 

Sec. 8. If the post-mortem inspection shows no ground for 
the condemnation of the meat, the inspector shall declare it as fit 
for consumption by man. 

Parts of a slaughtered animal shall not be taken away before 
inspection. 

Sec. 9. If the inspection shows that the meat is unfit as food 
for man, then the inspector shall place a provisional embargo upon 
it, inform the owner of this fact, and shall immediately give notice 
to the police authorities. 

Meat the unwholesomeness of which has been established by- 
inspection shall not be brought into traffic as food or condiment, 
for man. 

The use of the meat for other purposes may be permitted by" 
the police authorities, so far as sanitary considerations do not 
contraindicate. The police authorities shall determine what pre- 
cautionary measures are to be adopted in order to prevent the use 
of such meats as food for man. 

The meat shall not be brought into traffic without permission 
from the police, and then only under the precautionary measures 
prescribed by the police authorities. 

The meat shall be disposed of by the police authorities in 
such manner that it can do no harm, so far as its use for other 
purposes [Sec. 9, paragraph 3] is not permitted. 

Sec. 10. If the inspection shows that the meat is only con- 
ditionally fit as food for man, then the inspector shall place a 
provisional embargo upon it, shall inform the owner of this fact, 
and shall immediately give notice to the police authorities. The 
latter shall determine under what safeguarding measures the meat 
can be made fit for human food. 

Meat which has- thus been recognized as only conditionally 
utilizable shall not be brought into traffic as food and condiment 
for man before it has been made fit for human food by the safe- 
guarding measures prescribed by the police authorities. 



66 EEGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

So far as such action of making the meat fit for food is not 
taken, the provisions of Sec. 9, paragraphs 3 to 5, shall apply. 

Sec. 11. Dealing in meat thus made fit as food for man [Sec. 
10, paragraph 1] can take place only under a designation making 
this condition recognizable. 

Dealing in and use of such meat by meat dealers and hotel, 
saloon, and restaurant keepers are allowed only on license from the 
police authorities. This license shall be revocable at any time. 
Such meat shall be delivered to the above-mentioned tradespeople 
only so far as such a license has been granted to them. In the 
business rooms of these persons it must be made especially evident, 
by means of an intelligible sign in a conspicuous place, that meat 
of the quality designated in paragraph 1 [Sec. 11] is sold or used. 

Meat dealers shall not offer for sale nor sell this quality of 
meat in the same rooms in which wholesome meat [Sec. 8] is 
offered for sale or sold. 

The importation past the customs line of meat in hermetically 
sealed cans, or in other similar vessels, of sausages and other 
mixtures made from chopped meat, is prohibited. 

As for all other meats, the following provisions relative to 
their importation past the customs line shall be in force until 
December 31, 1903 : 

1. Fresh meat may be imported past the customs line only in 
entire carcasses, but the carcasses of cattle (with the exception of 
calves) and of swine may be cut into halves. 

The pleura and the peritoneum, lungs, heart, kidneys, and^ in 
case of cows, the udder also, must be attached to the carcass in 
natural connection. The Federal Council is authorized to extend 
this provision to other organs. 

2. Prepared meat may be imported only when from its origin 
and its preparation danger to human health is, as shown by 
experience, excluded, or when, at the time of importation, its 
harmlessness to human health can be determined in* a reliable 
manner. This determination is to be considered impracticable, 
especially in shipments of pickled meat, when the weight of single 
pieces is less than four kilograms. This order does not apply to 
hams, bacon and casings. 

Meat which, although subjected to a preserving process, has 
practically retained the properties of fresh meat, or which, through 
suitable treatment, can recover those properties, is not to be 
considered as prepared meat. Such meat comes under the pro- 
visions of number 1. 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 67 

After December 31, 1903, the conditions governing the importa- 
tion of meat are to be determined anew by law. If no new law is 
enacted by the time mentioned, the regulations established by 
Sec. 12, paragraph 2, shall remain in force until further measures 
are adopted. 

Sec. 13. Meat passing the customs line shall be subject, upon 
its importation, to an official inspection, made with the cooperation 
of the customs authorities. Such meat as is proved to have 
already been inspected, according to regulations, in the inland, and 
meat intended for shipment in direct transit, is excepted herefrom. 

The importation of meat shall take place only via certain 
customs houses. The Federal Council shall determine these 
customs houses, and also the customs and revenue offices where 
the inspection of the meat may take place. 

Sec. 14. For game and fowls, and further, for meat carried for 
use on journeys, the provisions of Sees. 12 and 13 shall be applic- 
able only so far as the Federal Council orders. 

For meat imported in the minor frontier trade, as well as in 
the trade of the fairs and markets of frontier districts, exceptions 
to the regulations of Sees. 12 and 13 may be made by order of the 
federated governments. 

Sec. 15. The Federal Council is authorized to decree more 
sweeping prohibitions and restrictions of importation than are 
provided in Sees. 12 and 13. 

Sec. 16. The provisions of Sec. 8, paragraph 1, and of Sees. 9 
to 11, apply also to meat imported inside of the customs line. 
Instead of the innocuous disposal or of the safeguarding measures 
ordered by the police, the re-exportation of the meat may, however, 
be permitted under corresponding precautionary measures, so far 
as hygienic considerations do not contraindicate. 

Sec. 17. Meat which is not intended as food for man, but 
which can be so used, may be imported without inspection, after it 
has been rendered unfit for human food. 

Sec. 18. The inspection (Sec. 1) of horses must be made by 
officially recognized veterinarians. 

Dealing in horse meat, as well as the importation of such meat 
inside of the customs line, shall take place only under a designa- 
tion, in the German lauguage, which makes the meat recognizable 
as horse meat. 

Dealing in and the use of horse meat shall be permitted to 
meat dealers and hotel, saloon and restaurant keepers only with a 
license from the police authorities ; the license shall be revocable 



68 KEGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

at any time. Horse meat may be delivered to the above-named 
tradespeople only so far as such a license has been granted to 
them. In the business rooms of these persons it must be made 
especially evident, by means of an intelligible sign in a conspicuous 
place, that horse meat is dealt in or used. 

Meat dealers shall not offer for sale nor sell horse meat in the 
same rooms in which meat from other animals is offered for sale or 
sold. 

The Federal Council is authorized to order that the above 
regulations be applied to asses, mules, dogs and other animals 
which are more rarely slaughtered. 

Sec. 19. The inspector shall clearly indicate upon the meat 
the result of the inspection. Meat imported from abroad is, in 
addition, to be plainly stamped as imported meat. 

The Federal Council shall determine the kind of mark to be used. 

Sec. 20. Meat which has been subjected within the German 
Empire to official inspection, according to Sees. 8 to 16, may be 
subject to an official reinspection only for the purpose of deter- 
mining whether it has spoiled in the meantime, or whether it has 
otherwise suffered any change in its condition, rendering it in- 
jurious to health. 

Enactments of the federated governments, according to which, 
for communities with public slaughterhouses, the dealing in fresh 
meat* may be subjected to restrictions, especially to obligatory 
inspection within the community, shall remain unaffected, with the 
proviso that their applicability shall not be made dependent upon 
the origin of the meat. 

Sec. 21. In the industrial preparation of meat no materials or 
processes shall be used which are capable of imparting to the 
wares a condition injurious to health. It is forbidden to import 
from abroad such prepared meat or to offer it for sale, to sell it, or 
otherwise to bring it into traffic. 

The Federal Council shall determine the materials and the 
processes to which these regulations shall be applied. 

The Federal Council shall order how far the regulations of 
paragraph 1 are applicable also to special materials and processes 
which are apt to conceal an unwholesome or inferior quality of the 
wares. 

Sec. 22. The Federal Council is authorized : 

1. To issue regulations relative to determining whether persons 
possess sufficient knowledge to act as meat inspectors. 

2. To establish general principles, according to which the 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 69 

inspection of food animals and meat is to be carried out, and for 
the further treatment of food animals and of meat in case they are 
not passed. 

3. To make the necessary arrangements for carrying out the 
provisions of Sec. 12 and for determining the fees for the inspection 
of meat brought inside the customs line. 

Sec. 23. The laws of the federated governments determine 
who has to bear the cost of the official inspection (Sec. 1). In all 
other matters, the necessary regulations for carrying out the law 
shall be issued by the governments of the federated states, so far as 
the Federal Council has not been declared competent, or in so far 
as the Federal Council makes no use of the authority conferred 
upon it by Sec. 22. 

Sec. 24. Regulations of the federated governments in regard 
to trichina inspection and the dealing in and use of meat which, 
although fit as food for man, is considerably diminished in its 
nutritive and food value ; further, regulations of the federated 
government establishing more extensive obligations than does this 
law relative to : (1) The animals to be subjected to inspection, (2) 
the carrying out of inspections by officially recognized veterinarians, 
(3) the dealing in rejected moat, or in meat of animals desig- 
nated in Sec. 18, are permissible on the condition that their 
applicability shall not be made dependent upon the place of origin 
of the food animal or of the meat. 

Sec. 25. The Federal Council shall determine how far the 
provisions of this law apply to meat imported into that part of the 
Empire situated outside of the customs line. 

Sec. 26. Imprisonment in jail not exceeding six months and a 
fine not exceeding one thousand five hundred marks, or either of 
these penalties, shall be imposed upon : 

1. Any person who knowingly acts in contravention of Sec. 9, 
paragraphs 2, 4 ; Sec. 10, paragraphs 2, 3 ; Sec. 12, paragraph 1 ; 
or Sec. 21, paragraphs 1, 2 ; or of a prohibition based upon Sec. 21, 
paragraph 3. 

2. Any person who shall knowingly bring into traffic as food or 
condiment for man meat which has been imported contrary to the 
regulations of Sec. 12, paragraph 1, or meat which has been ren- 
dered unfit for human food according to Sec. 17. 

3. Any person who shall fraudulently affix or alter the marks 
provided for in Sec. 19, or who shall knowingly offer for sale or sell 
meat on which the marks have been fraudulently affixed, altered, or 
removed. 



70 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

Sec. 27. A fine not exceeding one hundred and fifty marks or 
imprisonment will be imposed upon : 

1. Any person who through carelessness shall commit one of 
the acts designated in Sec. 26, numbers 1 and 2. 

2. Any person who shall undertake to slaughter an animal 
before it has been subjected to the inspection prescribed in this 
law, or ordered on authority of Sec. 1, paragraph 1, sentence 2 ; 
Sec. 3 ; Sec. 18, paragraph 5 ; or Sec. 24. 

3. Any person who shall bring meat into traffic before it has 
been subjected to the inspection prescribed in this law, or ordered 
on authority of Sec. 1, paragraph 1, sentence 2 ; Sec. 3 ; Sec. 4, 
paragraph 1 ; Sec. 18, paragraph 5 ; or Sec. 24. 

4. Any person who shall act in contravention of Sec. 2, para- 
graph 2; Sec. 7, paragraphs 2, 3; Sec. 8, paragraph 2; Sec. 11; 
Sec. 12, paragraph 2 ; Sec. 13, paragraph 2 ; Sec. 18, paragraph 2 to 
4; also, any person who shall contravene orders issued in accord- 
ance with Sec. 15, or Sec. 18, paragraph 5 ; or the regulations of 
the federated governments concerning the dealing in and the use of 
meat, issued on authority of Sec. 24. 

Sec. 28. In the cases in Sec. 26, numbers 1 and 2, and in Sec. 
27, number 1, the confiscation of the meat shall be ordered in 
addition to the penalty. In cases in Sec. 26, number 3, and Sec. 27, 
numbers 2 to 4, the seizure of the meat, or of the animal, may bo 
ordered in addition to the penalty. In the case of confiscation, it is 
immaterial whether the object seized belongs to the condemned 
person or not. 

If the prosecution or the condemnation of a given person is not 
possible, then the seizure may be ordered independently. 

Sec. 29. The provisions of the law of May 14, 1879 (page 145, 
Beichsgesetzbl.), regarding the traffic in foods, condiments and 
articles of use, remain unchanged. The provisions of Sec. 16 of 
said law shall also be applicable to offences against the provisions 
of the present law. 

Sec. 30. Those provisions of this law which relate to the 
adoption of the arrangements necessary for carrying out the law for 
the inspection of food animals and of meat shall take effect on the 
day of the promulgation of this law. 

Furthermore, the time when the law goes into effect, either 
wholly or in part, shall be fixed by an imperial order with the 
assent of the Federal -Council. 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 71 

( 

Remarks Concerning Meat Inspection Law. 

(a) General. 

The enactment of the bill concerning the introduction of the 
inspection of food animals and meat in th*3 German Empire was not 
accomplished by a unanimous vote on the part of the Reichstag. 
Strangely enough, according to a statement of the State Secretary, 
Count Posadowsky, certain persons were opposed to the law from 
whom such opposition was not to be expected. It seemed to have 
been forgotten that the new meat inspection law had in the first 
place a hygienic purpose — the protection of the public health. 

The State Secretary of the German Empire, in a noteworthy 
speech, characterized the high purpose of the meat inspection law 
and also the defects which were due to the resolutions of the 
majority of the Reichstag. The original draft of the law was not 
enacted in the hygienically complete form in which the Reichs- 
regierung presented it to the Reichstag. The majority of the 
Reichstag, which remained deaf to the statements of experts, 
introduced regulations into the law which we must regret from a 
standpoint of hygiene. Nevertheless, the bill, which has now 
become a law, is a great hygienic fact, the effects of which will be 
beneficial to the consumer, producer and dealer in equal degree. 

From the standpoint of hygiene, we must consider that 
slaughtering for one's own household, according to the provisions 
of the law, is not subject to obligatory inspection, and we are of the 
opinion that this exception is not in accordance with the well- 
known interests of the farmer. It is to be hoped, however, that the 
facultative meat inspection in slaughtering for one's own house- 
hold, like facultative inspection for trichina in hogs slaughtered for 
home use, will pass over into obligatory inspection after the un- 
desirability of the exception has become apparent from practice. 

The majority in the Reichstag, furthermore, to the disadvantage 
of the farmer and consumer, struck out the obligatory provisions 
concerning the sale of inferior meat upon the freibank. 

Moreover, from a hygienic standpoint, the admission of separate 
pieces of meat from foreign countries is to be characterized as a 
defect in the law, since the inspection of such pieces for the purpose 
of determining their harmlessness is an impossibility. It must be 
admitted, on the other hand, that the Reichstag, contrary to the 
original draft of the law, introduced a prohibitive order against the 
introduction of manufactured articles, such as sausages and con- 



72 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

serves, the composition of which is entirely beyond control. More- 
over, it is possible that in the introduction of separate pieces of 
meat a change for the better may occur when it becomes possible, 
by the admission of animals from foreign countries in abattoirs on 
the border, to enforce strictly the requirement that only whole 
parts of animals in their natural connections with the internal 
organs shall be introduced. Finally, some objections may be 
raised against the wording of Sec. 20, which permits cities 
to make a subsequent inspection of meat introduced from foreign 
countries only when it is in a fresh condition, as well as against the 
penalties which have created contradictions between the new law 
and the corresponding provisions of the food law and the criminal 
statutes for the German Empire. 

It will be the duty of the Federal Council and the governments 
of the various federated States to regulate this matter by the 
decree of ordinances for enforcing the law. 

The rationale of the law, together with technical commentaries 
on it, are found in Act 138 of the Reichstag, 10th Legislative 
Period, First Session, 1898-1899. Furthermore, with regard to the 
history of the origin of the law, Act 639 of the Reichstag, 10th 
Legislative Period, First Session, 1898-1899, is important as con- 
taining the report of the 15th Session, which was entrusted with 
making the draft of the law, and, finally, the stenographic reports of 
the Eeichstag for the Sessions 67, 68, 162, 163, 164, 199, 200, and 
201 of the above-mentioned legislative period. From these sources 
the following commentary is taken.* 

(b) Commentary on the Different Provisions of the 
Meat Inspection Law. 

Section 1. 

Cattle, swine, sheep, goats, horses, and dogs, the meat of which is intended to 
be used as food for man, shall be subjected to an official inspection both before and 
after slaughter. By decision of the Federal Council, obligatory inspection may be 
extended to other food animals. 

In case of emergency slaughter, the ante-mortem inspection may be omitted. 

The following are to be considered as cases of emergency: When there is 
reason to fear that {he animal may die before the arrival of the proper local inspector, 
or that the meat may become materially reduced in value owing to aggravation of the 
diseased condition, or when, in consequence of an accident, the animal must be killed 
immediately. 



* Compare also the Commentary of von Rohrscheidt, The Meat Inspection Law 
of June 3, 1900. Leipsic: 1900. 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 73 

(a) Compulsory inspection is restricted to domesticated ani- 
mals, although from a hygienic standpoint the regulation of traffic 
in birds, game, fish, amphibia, Crustacea and mollusks would also 
be desirable. The control of the traffic in fowl, game, fish, etc., is 
so essentially different from the regulation of the traffic in other 
meats that it was not considered practicable to treat these different 
matters in one and the same law. The control of fowl, game and 
fish markets is, therefore, reserved for later municipal ordinances. 

The fact fhat dogs were introduced in Sec. 1 is not in accord- 
ance with the original purpose of the law ; for, according to this 
purpose, only those animals should be mentioned the meat of 
which is of value as a food material for large classes of the 
population. 

(b) "Food for man." A preliminary condition to obligatory 
inspection is the utilization of the animals as a human food ma- 
terial. Animals which are utilized as food for other animals (in 
menageries, piggeries and dog kennels), or are to be used for 
technical purposes, are excluded from inspection. 

(c) " Before and after slaughter." The provision that food 
animals are to be inspected also before slaughter takes account of 
the fact that, for a well-founded opinion of the fitness of meat for 
food, there is required not only an inspection of the slaughtered 
animals, but also an examination of the animals before slaughter. 

The control of the market (extraordinary meat inspection, see 
p. 1), the regulation of which is an affair of the police administra- 
tion, is independent of the inspection prescribed by the Imperial 
Meat Inspection Law. 

(d) " Emergency slaughter." In cases of emergency slaughter, 
inspection before slaughter must be omitted, for the reason that 
slaughter must necessarily take place so quickly that the long 
delay in waiting the arrival of an inspector might result in the 
death of the animal. A compensation for this omission is had in 
the more accurate, microscopical, bacteriological and chemical 
inspection of the meat and in the stricter judgment of it (admission 
as human food only in case no doubt exists regarding the nature of 
the disease which occasioned the emergency slaughter, and re- 
garding the fitness of the meat for food). In order to prevent the 
illegal evasion of the inspection of food animals before slaughter, 
and in order to give the criminal justice facts for directing his 
judgment, the meaning of emergency slaughter is expressly declared 
by the Reichstag. In accordance with the law an emergency 
slaughter exists only when a diseased animal is to be slaughtered 



74 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

simply for the reason that the prospect of recovery is slight or that 
the further maintenance of the animal may not be profitable. 

Section 2. 

In the case of food animals the meat of which is intended to be used exclusively 
in the owner's own household, the ante-mortem inspection may be omitted whenever 
the animals do not present any signs of disease which would exclude the fitness of 
their meat as food; the post-mortem inspection also may be omitted whenever such 
indications of disease are likewise not revealed during the killing and dressing. 

Traffic in meat the inspection of which has been omitted on the ground of 
Sec. 2, paragraph 1, is forbidden. 

As "own household" in the sense of Sec. 2, paragraph 1, are not to be con- 
sidered: The household of. the barracks, hospitals, educational institutions, res- 
taurants, prisons, almshouses, and similar institutions, nor the household of the 
butchers, meat dealers, nor of hotel, saloon and restaurant keepers. 

(a) The fundamental significance of the determination of exceptions. 
According to the provisions of the law, only a portion of the animals 
slaughtered for home consumption (sheep, goats, and calves and 
pigs under three months) were excluded from compulsory inspection, 
and then only so far as the animals showed no evidence of disease. 
By such a wording of the law, the requirements of sanitation and 
the principal desires of farmers in slaughtering for their own use 
will be satisfied to the same degree. The Reichstag Commission, 
however, extended the prescribed exceptions to Sec. 2 to include all 
slaughtering for home use, although the representatives of the 
various governments explained that meat inspection must be 
extended to all slaughtering for home use for the reason that sani- 
tary protection should be furnished uniformly for all consumers, and 
for the further reason that the veterinary police take great interest 
in the inspection of animals slaughtered for home use, and the 
inspection of slaughtered animals for home use had justified itself 
wherever it had been introduced (Hessen-Nassau and the Kingdom 
of Saxony). The wording given by the Reichstag Commission to 
Sec. 2 may be a Greek gift to the farmers, to whom the broader 
construction was supposed to be an advantage. The legal decisions 
collected in the Imperial Health Office concerning the violations of 
the food law show that the farmers who slaughter for home use do 
not realize the responsibility which they assume in the utilization of 
the meat of animals not inspected by experts. The farmer does not 
know that in using in his own household meat injurious to health 
and of the injurious character of which he is not aware, he is guilty 
of a violation of Sec. 12 to 14 of the food law, since the traffic in 
injurious food material for which punishment is provided in these 
paragraphs means nothing more nor less than " to make accessible 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 75 

to others for food." If even now criminal proceedings are frequently 
begun against farmers on the basis of the food law, they will 
probably be much more numerous after the introduction of com- 
pulsory meat inspection, for the reason that recognition of the value 
of meat inspection will be much more common than previously 
among consumers, and all meat which has not been inspected will 
be regarded with suspicion. The more discerning farmers have, 
therefore, urgently advised their fellow-farmers, for the sake of 
their own health and in order to avoid malignant denunciation by 
their servants, to yield the exception in favor of slaughter for home 
use and to place the responsibility for the utilization of meat 
slaughtered for home use upon an expert to be selected for this 
purpose. 

With regard to the exception from compulsory inspection of 
hogs slaughtered for home use, it should be remembered that all 
cases of trichinosis which have occurred in Berlin since 1883 have 
been due to pork products sent from outside localities to private 
persons. These products in the place where the slaughtering was 
done were intended for home consumption and were therefore not 
required to be inspected for trichina. 

The restrictive provision that animals which show evidence of 
the presence of a disease rendering the meat unfit for use must be 
inspected is not calculated to prevent all harm resulting from the 
consumption of meat which was not inspected because it was 
intended for private use. For this provision allows a wide play to 
individual opinions and the less scrupulous farmers will attempt to 
shirk their responsibility by a pretended ignorance of the symptoms 
in question. 

Manifestly, stock owners are not prevented from voluntarily 
offering for inspection animals which are not subject to compulsory 
inspection. Furthermore, it is left to the different States through 
the regulations of Sec. 24, paragraph 1, to subject animals slaugh- 
tered for home use, throughout their territory in general or under 
certain conditions, to compulsory inspection. 

(b) " Owners own household" "Industrial utilization of meat." 
The meaning of "owner's own household" appears from the 
regulation of paragraph 3, e contrario. In the institutions mentioned 
in paragraph 3, exceptions to compulsory slaughter are not permis- 
sible, since in these cases a higher public concern exists for the 
health of those persons who are brought to these institutions or are 
doing busines in them. Slaughtering for home use, however, which 
may be carried out by the inmates of servants' quarters in these 



76 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

institutions, is to be looked upon as other cases of slaughter for 
home consumption. The regulation with regard to the household 
of butchers is intended to prevent the sale, offering for sale, or other 
utilization of meat which ostensibly was intended for the private 
household of those persons, but was placed upon the market by an 
evasion of compulsory inspection. The tradesmen, also, who 
prepare or manipulate meat before its sale (sausage makers, 
conserve manufacturers, etc.), are to be considered as meat dealers. 

Unfortunately, according to Sec. 2, only the industrial utiliza- 
tion of meat which has not been inspected is forbidden, and not the 
giving of it away gratis or incidentally (explanation of the State 
Secretary of the Interior at the 200th Session of the Eeichstag). It 
was intended in this provision to allow farmers who had slaughtered 
too much meat for their own household an opportunity to dispose 
of the excess, despite the fact that it would have been more suitable 
io make the subsequent disposition of the surplus dependent upon 
the inspection of the meat. " The utilization is industrial only 
when it is undertaken* and continued for the purpose of gain. A 
single instance of the utilization of the meat, is, therefore, not 
industrial if there is no intention of continuing in the business. On 
the other hand, the financial advantage does not necessarily consist 
in money." (Eohrscheidt, according to decisions of the Upper 
Tribunal Court, the Upper Administrative Court, Imperial Court, 
and the Court of Chancery.) 

(c) " Signs of disease which would exclude the fitness of their meat 
as food." In order that this restriction of Sec. 2 may have any 
practical value, it is necessary in the regulations for enforcing the 
law to specify those diseases which render meat unfit for use, and 
their symptoms. It must then be the business of the local author- 
ities to make generally known these commentaries of Sec. 2 of the 
meat inspection law. 

Section 3. 

The federated governments are authorized to order the inspection, at places 
where and times when a communicable animal disease prevails, of all food animals 
exposed to said disease. 

Sec. 3 is copied after a Bavarian meat inspection regulation in 
order to make possible the inspection of all food animals for the 
protection of the consumers and for the determination of the cases 
of disease in the interest of the veterinary police, at least during 
the prevalence of plagues (epizootic anthrax, swine erysipelas, swine 
plague, and hog cholera). Since in this instance it is a case of local 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 77 

origin and temporary measures, the competency of the different 
Hegierungen is conceded. 

Section 4. 

Meats, in the sense of this law, are fresh or prepared parts of "warm-blooded 
animals, so far as these parts are edible. Fats and sausages prepared from warm- 
blooded animals are also considered as "parts"; other products, however, only so far 
as the Federal Council orders. 

(a) " Meat." The meaning of meat was not well defined. It 
was desirable, therefore, to define its limits accurately, chiefly for 
the purpose of establishing a precedent for the application of federal 
inspection to the various kinds of foreign meat. According to the 
definition given in the law, meat is to be considered as including all 
parts of warm-blooded animals in so far as they are suitable for 
human food. It is not required that they be also intended for this 
purpose. In the sense of Sec. 4, prepared and manufactured meat, 
sausages, fats, and intestines are also included under meat. 

(b) " Other products." These are, for example, meat extracts, 
meat peptones, meat gelatines, soup tablets, the necessity for the 
control of which before their admission to the food market had not 
made itself felt until the present time, as is asserted in the law. 
The Federal Council, however, shall have the right to subject all 
these other products to compulsory inspection in cases of emergency^ 

(c) " Parts of ivarm-blooded animals." By means of this limita- 
tion the meat of fish, amphibia, Crustacea, and mollusks is excluded, 
while that of fowls is included. 

Section 5. 

For the furtherance of inspection, districts shall be established; at least one- 
inspector and one deputy 'inspector shall be appointed for each of such districts. 

The establishment of the inspection districts and the appointment of the 
inspectors devolve upon the federated governmental authorities. For the inspections 
to be performed in the military preserved meat factories, there may be speciaL 
inspectors appointed by the military authorities. 

Officially recognized veterinarians, or other persons who have demonstrated a 
sufficient knowledge, are to be appointed as inspectors. 

(a) Inspection districts. The establishment of inspection districts 
is necessary in order to control the execution of the provisions of 
the law. The boundaries of the districts depend upon local con- 
ditions. This matter was, therefore, left to local authorities. 

(b) Inspectors. The original draft of the law read : " It is ex- 
pedient that only veterinarians shall be appointed as inspectors. 
Other persons must submit to an examination before their appoint- 
ment." By means of this wording, an attempt was made to give- 



78 REGULATION OP TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

expression to the view that in localities where veterinarians were to 
be obtained they should be appointed as inspectors and that other 
persons should be appointed only in localities where this supposi- 
tion did not apply. The problem of inspection is regulated in this 
manner in the South German meat inspection ordinances and in the 
Belgian meat inspection law. This takes into consideration the 
fact that the best guaranty for expert practice of the inspection of 
food animals and meat is obtained when it is carried on by approved 
veterinarians. Practically, the final wording of Sec. 5 of the law 
does not change the intent of the original draft, since for reasons 
already given the supervisory authorities are to bear in mind the 
expediency of the appointment of veterinarians as inspectors. 

The exclusive competency of approved veterinarians is pro- 
vided for in the law only in the case of the inspection of horse meat 
(Sec. 18, paragraph 1). Furthermore, the Federal Council may call 
upon them for an inspection of animals which are more rarely 
brought to slaughter. Moreover, in Sec. 24, number 2, authority is 
given to limit in a legal manner the appointment of laymen as meat 
inspectors, or to exclude them entirely within the various federal 
States. 

Aside from the investigation of horses, veterinary inspection is 
absolutely necessary in cases of emergency slaughter, for meat 
introduced from foreign countries, and for meat which after slaugh- 
ter is found to exhibit important variations from the normal 
condition. 

Sec. 22 gives the Federal Council the authority to make 
regulations concerning the proof of sufficient knowledge on the 
part of assistant meat inspectors, in order that it may not be 
lowered beyond a certain standard and in order that the training 
and examination of these persons may be regulated in a uniform 
manner throughout the German Empire. 

The technical commentaries upon the original draft of the 
meat inspection law contain the following statement concerning the 
competency of the veterinarian for meat inspection. 

For judging the healthy and diseased condition in the living 
and slaughtered animal, approved veterinarians are best adapted 
from their previous course of training and from their active duties 
in practice. In addition to the fundamental sciences of anatomy, 
pathology, pathological anatomy, bacteriology, parasitology, and 
animal industry, students in veterinary high schools receive special 
training in meat inspection. In the majority of States this branch 
of knowledge receives consideration in the examination for the posi- 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 79 

tion of official veterinarian. In Wiirtemburg, admission to this 
examination is made to depend upon a practical course in one of 
the larger abattoirs. In other States the same condition may be 
required. Many veterinarians actively employed in public abattoirs 
have already chosen the special service of officials of the sanitary 
police as a life work and have made important contributions to the 
scientific foundation of meat inspection. It is, therefore, expedient 
that only approved veterinarians be appointed as meat inspectors. 
In cities in which veterinarians have located, this will nearly always 
be possible. 

(c) Special inspectors for the investigations to be undertaken in 
army conserve factories. The desirability of the appointment of 
military veterinarians for the inspection of army conserve factories 
was questioned in the Commission of the Reichstag. On this point 
the representative of the Ministry of War remarked that horse 
doctors were approved veterinarians and that in the practice of 
their duties they had abundant opportunity to occupy themselves 
with meat inspection. Thus, for more than a year, the inspection 
of animals before and after slaughter, not only in army conserve 
factories, but also for all meat rations issued to troops, has been 
enforced. The inspection of food animals and meat in the 
maneuver abattoir is quite general.* Finally, it was asserted that 
the horse doctors had occasion to occupy themselves with this 
branch of the service with especial thoroughness on account of the 
fact that in all army corps special annual courses, partly theoretical 
and partly practical, were given under the direction of horse 
doctors, and in these courses the commissary officials and pay- 
masters received instruction in meat inspection. 

Section 6. 

If during the inspections there is shown the presence or the suspicion of a 
disease, for which compulsory notification exists, action is to be taken in accordance 
with the regulations in force governing the case at hand. 

The duty of notification. When it appears in making an inspec- 
tion that a disease or the suspicion of a disease exists, of which, 
according to the Imperial or State law, it is necessary to give 
notice, the inspector and also the owner are required, according to 
the regulations, to give notice of this fact at the proper place. 
(Compare p. 



* According to the regulations of the army veterinary ordinances, the inspec- 
tion of meat intended for the troops belongs to the duties of the horse doctors. 



80 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

Section 7. 

If the ante-mortem inspection does not furnish any ground for preventing 
slaughter, the inspector shall permit it to take place under any special precautions- 
which in his judgment should be adopted. 

The slaughter of the animal presented for inspection shall not take place before 
permission is given, and then only under the special precautionary measures ordered. 

If slaughter does not take place, at latest two days after permission is given, 
then it shall be allowable only after a reinspection and a second permit. 

(a) Passing for slaughter. The inspector shall have the author- 
ity to enforce certain measures concerning slaughter ; for example* 
in order to prevent the dissemination of virus or contagion in the 
case of diseased or suspected animals, or in order to diagnose the 
disease more accurately, or to render more reliable the judgment 
concerning the fitness of the meat of the slaughtered animals for 
food. The passing of the animal may be made subject to the con- 
dition that the animal shall be slaughtered only in a particular 
room (in public abattoirs, in the so-called police slaughterhouse, 
see p. 39), or that slaughter shall take place without delay. 

(b) That the permission to slaughter should become inoperative 
if it is not taken advantage of within two days after it is granted 
appears to be well founded from the fact that important alterations 
may occur in the general condition of the animal in the meantime, 
which would require a revocation of the permission or the issuance 
of special regulations. As a justification of the two-day period, the 
general principle may be cited from Section 199 of the Civil Pro- 
cesses .and Section 187 of the Civil Statutes that in periods for 
which some event, or a point of time during the course of the day, 
constitutes the beginning, that day is not to be reckoned in which 
the event or the point of time falls. In addition to the day on 
which the permission for slaughter is granted, the two following 
days of the calendar are to be considered as belonging to the period. 

Section 8. 

If the post-mortem inspection shows no ground for the condemnation of the 
meat, the inspector shall declare it as fit for consumption by man. 

Parts of a slaughtered animal shall not be taken away before the inspection. 

Section 9. 

If the inspection shows that the meat is unfit as food for man, then the inspector 
shall place a provisional embargo upon it, inform the owner of this fact, and shall 
immediately give notice to the police authorities. 

Meat the unwholesomeness of which has been established by inspection shall not 
be brought into traffic as food or condiment for man. 

The use of the meat for other purposes may be permitted by the police authori- 
ties, so far as sanitary considerations do not contraindicate. The police authorities 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 81 

shall determine what precautionary measures are to be adopted in order to prevent 
the use of such meats as food for man. 

The meat shall not be brought into traffic without permission from the police, 
and then only under the precautionary measures prescribed by the police authorities. 

The meat shall be disposed of by the police authorities in such manner that it 
can do no harm, so far as its use for other purposes [Sec. 9, paragraph 3] is not 
permitted. 

Section 10. 

If the inspection shows that the meat is only conditionally fit as food for man, 
then the inspector shall place a provisional embargo upon it, shall inform the owner 
of this fact, and shall immediately give notice to the police authorities. The latter 
shall determine under what safeguarding measures the meat can be made fit for 
human food. 

Meat which has thus been recognized as only conditionally utilizable shall not 
be brought into traffic as food and condiment for man before it has been made fit for 
human food by the safeguarding measures prescribed by the police authorities. 

So far as such action of making the meat fit for food is not taken, the provi- 
sions of Sec. 9, paragraphs 3 to 5, shall apply. 

Section 11. 

Dealing in meat thus made fit as food for man [Sec. 10, paragraph 1] can take 
place only under a designation making this condition recognizable. 

Dealing in and use of such meat by meat dealers and hotel, saloon and res- 
taurant keepers are allowed only on license from the police authorities. This license 
shall be revocable at any time. Such meat shall be delivered to the above-mentioned 
tradespeople only so far as such a license has been granted to them. In the business 
rooms of these persons it must be made especially evident, by means of an intelligible- 
sign in a conspicuous place, that meat of the quality designated in paragraph 1 
[Sec. 11] is sold or used. 

Meat dealers shall not offer for sale nor sell this quality of meat in the same 
rooms in which wholesome meat is offered for sale or sold. 

(a) Results of the investigation and judgment of meat with reference 
to its fitness for food. The Imperial Meat Inspection Law distin- 
guishes between three fundamentally different classes of meat with 
reference to their fitness for food : (1) Meat which is fit for food. 
(Sec. 8) ; (2) meat which is unfit for food (Sec. 9) ; (3) meat which, 
is qualifiedly fit for food (Sec. 10). 

The original draft of the law characterizes, as a fourth kind of 
meat, such as is of inferior value (meat which is fit for human food! 
but which is very inferior in its nutritive value). The Reichstag, 
however, for reasons which are absolutely unintelligible, rejected 
the regulation by Imperial law of traffic in meat of inferior value 
and the introduction of freibanks which is directly connected with 
it, and without which a proper practice of meat inspection is 
unthinkable, and left the promulgation of suitable regulations to 
the different governments. The only persons who could be oppo- 



82 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

nents of the regulation of the traffic in inferior meat and of freibanks 
are farmers, and they only from ignorance of the real conditions. 
Since, however, freibanks are already authoritatively introduced in 
southern Germany, middle Germany, and the Kingdom of Saxony, 
and since the representatives of the Prussian Agricultural Chamber 
in harmony with the German Agricultural Council, declared in 
favor of the introduction of freibanks,* it is to be assumed 
that in the Kingdom of Prussia as well as in other parts of 
Germany the freibank question will be regulated by means of state 
laws. 

(b) " Meat lohicli is fit for food, meat which is unfit for food and 
meat which is qualifiedly fit for food.'" The term " meat which is fit for 
food" is synonymous with " marketable" of the older meat inspec- 
tion laws, and, according to the provisions of the original draft of 
the law, included meat " which is of normal quality and which gives 
rise to no suspicion with regard to its wholesomeness." This defini- 
tion is not entirely clear, and, moreover, is not sufficient, for meat of 
normal appearance can not give rise to any suspicion as to its 
wholesomeness. On the other hand, however, we must reckon in 
this class such meat as shows only unimportant variations from the 
normal ; for instance, a very slight degree of icterus. 

The term "unfit for food," according to the provisions of the 
law, includes meat which, on account of the danger to human health 
connected with its use as food, must be absolutely excluded from 
utilization as a food material. This definition is also unsatisfactory, 
for we may have meat which, without being dangerous to health, is 
unfit for human food ; for example, watery, strong smelling, highly 
discolored, meat infested with numerous harmless parasites, etc. 
That the law makers intended to have these defects considered as 
a sufficient ground for a declaration of unfitness for food is 
apparent from the technical commentaries to the laws, in which 
meat from acute cases of swine plague, swine erysipelas, trichin- 
osis, measles, poisoning, dropsy, wasting diseases, etc., is declared 
to belong to the class " unfit for food." 

Meat is held to be qualifiedly fit for food when it is not 
utilizable as human food in its natural condition without injuring 
health, but which may have lost its dangerous properties by suit- 
able treatment ; for example, measly or trichinous meat, and also 
the meat in certain forms of tuberculosis. 



* Report concerning the Proceedings of a Conference Instituted by the Central 
Authority for Animal Industry of the Prussian Agricultural Chamber for the pre- 
paration of an Obligatory Insurance Law for Pood Animals in Prussia. Berlin : 1901. 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 83 

Furthermore, although it was not mentioned in the text of the 
law or in the technical commentaries, all meat belongs to this 
class which comes from such diseases as may be disseminated 
through meat traffic ; for example, swine erysipelas, swine plague, 
and hog cholera. 

With reference to the classification of defective meat, the text 
of the law declares that characters, by which the proper classification 
of meat in one or the other of the groups mentioned is determined, 
can not be mentioned in an exhaustive manner on account of the 
great differences which are observed in the appearance of meat in 
general. The decision must rather be reached independently in 
each case. The desired uniformity of classification will, therefore, 
be sufficiently assured by the fact that the Federal Council estab- 
lished certain guiding principles for the judgment of meat, for which 
authority is given in Sec. 22, paragraph 2. 

(c) Method of procedure in the case of defective meat. While meat 
which is fit for food is not subject to any restriction in traffic, meat 
which is unfit for food may never be admitted to sale as food or 
condiment for human beings, and meat which is qualifiedly fit for 
food may thus be admitted only after it has been made utilizable 
by boiling, steaming, pickling, or refrigerating. For other purposes, 
as for technical utilization (the preparation of oils, soaps, and 
candles) for feeding animals and the like, the utilization of the meat 
may be permitted by the police authorities in so far as no sanitary 
scruples exist. Measures for assuring the proper procedure in 
rendering meat which is qualifiedly fit for food suitable foi use, for 
the purpose of preventing the utilization of dangerous meat as 
human food, may be found in the regulations of the police author- 
ities ; for example, the denaturalization of the meat by the assistants 
or deputies of the police. The certainty of proper treatment may, 
however, "be secured by police requirements upon the owners oi the 
meat, the fulfillment of which is controlled officially. In the case 
of meat which is unfit for human food, it will be necessary, as a 
rule, to take care that it is not admitted to the market before it is 
rendered externally unfit for human consumption. The choice of 
means for securing this result is left to the discretion of the police 
authorities, according to the regulations of the Federal Council 
based upon the principles contained in Sec. 22, paragraph 2. The 
owner does not have the right to require that the meat shall be 
delivered to him for applying the necessary treatment ; for example, 
cooking of measly or trichinous pork. In so far as admission of 
meat which is unfit for food for other purposes than for human 



84 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

food appears to be undesirable, the police authorities are to provide 
for its harmless disposal (burying, burning, etc.). It is not uncon- 
ditionally required that they themselves or their deputies should 
undertake this destruction ; it may, under certain conditions, suffice 
if the proper disposal of the meat is made under their immediate 
supervision and according to regulations which they have adopted. 
If the required treatment of meat which is qualifiedly fit for food is 
omitted, it is to be considered as unfit for food. 

(d) Condemnation and notice of condemnation to the police author- 
ities. In the case of condemnation, the duty of the meat inspector, 
aside from notifying the owner and the police authorities, is 
restricted to taking charge of the meat for the purpose of preventing 
its secret removal or illegal utilization. Further measures (such as 
the harmless disposal of meat which is unfit for food, its condem- 
nation for technical utilization, determination of procedure for 
rendering suitable for food meat which was qualifiedly fit for con- 
sumption) are entrusted to the local police authorities. The final 
decision concerning condemned meat is, therefore, rendered not by 
the meat inspector, but by the police authorities. The extent to 
which the police authorities are bound by the judgment of the meat 
inspector, concerning the quality of the meat and the manner in 
which the owner of the slaughtered animal may be granted the 
privilege of contesting the condemnation of the meat, is to be 
regulated by authority of the various governments (Sec. 23). The 
transfer of police authority to the abattoir directors, as was stated 
during the sessions of the Commission, is not in accordance with 
the Imperial law with regard to the conditions of the local police 
authorities and the administrative arrangements in the different 
States. In Saxony and Wurtemburg, police powers are conferred 
upon some of the abattoir directors. 

In case of slaughter and inspection of a large number of 
animals in abattoirs and similar institutions, special notice need not 
be given to the police authorities for each separate animal. It 
appears to be much more satisfactory to make a general report for 
several, say for all the animals condemned during one day. 

(e) Limitations of traffic in meat which is qualifiedly fit for food, but 
which has been rendered utilizable. Meat which has been rendered 
suitable for food by any process whatever is still defective. The 
provisions contained in the section are, therefore, necessary in order 
to prevent the sale of this meat, as if it were without defect and 
saleable for the same price as meat of prime quality. 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 85 

Section 12. 

The importation past the customs line of meat in hermetically sealed cans, or in 
other similar vessels, of sausages and other mixtures made from chopped meat, is 
prohibited. 

As for all other meats, the following provisions relative to their importation past 
the customs line shall be in force until December 31, 1903: 

1. Fresh meat may be imported past the customs line only in entire carcasses, 
but the carcasses of cattle (with the exception of calves) and of swine may be cut into 
halves. 

The pleura and the peritoneum, lungs, heart, kidneys, and, in case of cows, the 
udder also, must be attached to the carcass in natural connection. The Federal 
Council is authorized to extend this provision to other organs. 

2. Prepared meat may be imported only when from its origin and its preparation 
danger to human health is, as shown by experience, excluded, or when, at the time of 
importation, its harmlessness to human health can be determined in a reliable manner. 
This determination»is to be considered impracticable, especially in shipments of pickled 
meat, when the weight of single pieces is less than four kilograms. This order does 
not apply to hams, bacon, and casings. 

Meat which, although subjected to a preserving process, has practically retained 
the properties of fresh meat, or which, through suitable treatment, can recover those 
properties, is not to be considered as prepared meat. Such meat comes under the 
provisions of number 1. 

After December 31, 1903, the conditions governing the importation of meat are 
to be determined anew by law. If no new law is enacted by the time mentioned, the 
regulations established by Sec. 12, paragraph 2, shall remain in force until further 
measures are adopted. 

(a) Prohibition of the introduction of canned meats, sausages, and 
other mixtures of minced meat. This prohibition is the natural 
consequence of the execution of the law in the interior, since canned 
meats, sausages, and other mixtures made of minced meat can not 
be accurately tested with regard to their fitness for food. 

(b) " Whole animal bodies." The meaning of whole animal 
bodies requires a more detailed definition. According to the word- 
ing of Sec. 4, the trunk, together with the parts of the extremities 
and head, which are meat, are to be understood as included under 
the term animal bodies. 

(c) The introduction of certain organs in their natural connection. 
The number of organs which, according to Sec. 12, are to be intro- 
duced in their natural connection is not sufficient for the purpose of 
rendering accurate judgment on meat. It is desirable, also, that the 
uterus in female animals, and it is necessary that the spleen in all 
food animals (diagnosis of anthrax and Texas fever), as well as the 
head of cattle (cysticercus) and horses (glanders), in case it is not 
reckoned with the animal bodies, should also be introduced. In 
the case of the horse, the skin in its natural connection is also 
required for the diagnosis of glanders. 



86 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

(d) Introduction of prepared meat. The provisions concerning 
the introduction of prepared meat are to be considered as the result 
of a compromise which is technically not well founded; for in 
individual pieces of prepared meat, even when their weight amounts 
to more than 4 kg., the harmlessness of the meat can not be deter- 
mined in a reliable manner ; take, for example, anthrax, septicemia, 
and generalized tuberculosis ; even the dangerous animal parasites 
(cysticerci and trichina) are only accidentally demonstrable in 
individual pieces. Thus it happens that by the customary methods 
of preparation (pickling, salting, and smoking) the harmful proper- 
ties of meat are either not destroyed at all or at least not. with 
certainty. 

According to the compromise, the following forms of prepared 
meat are for the present permitted to be introduced : pieces of 
pickled meat of a weight of more than 4 kg., beef livers under the 
same conditions, and also hams, bacon sides, and intestines. 

Section 13. 

Meat passing the customs line shall be subject, upon its importation, to an- 
official inspection made with the cooperation of the customs authorities. Such meat 
as is proved to have already been inspected, according to regulations, in the inland, 
and meat intended for shipment in direct transit is excepted herefrom. 

The importation of meat shall take place only via certain customs houses. The 
Federal Council shall determine these customs houses and also the customs and 
revenue offices where the inspection of the meat may take place. 

(a) Foreign meat. All meat in the sense of Sec. 4 is subject to a 
compulsory inspection. Therefore, not only the meat of animals 
which, according to the law or according to local regulations pro- 
vided for therein, are subject to inspection, but also the meat of all 
warm-blooded animals so far as exceptions are not made in the law. 
Compulsory inspection applies also in the same manner to meat 
which is intended for private use as to that which is intended for 
general utilization. 

(b) The " customs inland " is not co-extensive with the boundaries 
of the German Empire. 

To the German customs inland belong also Luxemburg and the 
customs ports lying in the Austrian regions. The free harbor 
regions, on the contrary, do not belong to the customs inland. 

(c) Cooperation of the customs officials. The cooperation of the 
customs officials is confined to making possible the immediate- 
seizure of all meat introduced for sanitary inspection and to prevent 
the meat from being freely admitted to the market before a satis- 
factory decision on the inspection is reached. 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 87 



Section 14. 

For game and fowls, and, further, for meat carried for use on journeys, the 
provisions of Sees. 12 and 13 shall be applicable only so far as the Federal Council 
orders. 

For meat imported in the minor frontier trade, as well as in the trade of the 
fairs and markets of frontier districts, exceptions to the regulations of Sees. 12 
and 13 may be made by order of the federated governments. 

The exception from compulsory inspection of wild game and fowls, 
as well as all meat which is transported for use in travelling. The draft 
of the law states on this point that the necessity of a sanitary- 
control in general does not exist for wild game and the meat of 
fowls. Occasionally, to be sure, in outbreaks of epizootics among 
game and fowl in foreign countries, a method of control may be 
shown to be necessary. In the case of meat which is carried for 
use on journeys .and also in the case of meat which is ordered from 
foreign countries by post, it appears that so long as no especially 
dangerous conditions exist the practice of an official inspection may 
"be omitted. On the one hand, the quantities of meat which come 
into consideration in this connection are, as a rule, inconsiderable, 
and are not for subsequent sale, but for private use of the persons 
concerned. On the other hand, again, the inspection of these 
materials would be connected with great inconvenience on the part 
of the owners and recipients. The original »draft of the law, there- 
fore, gave authority to the Federal Council to determine according: 
to requirements in how far an inspection of meat of these classes 
should be undertaken. 

Section 15. 

The Federal Council is authorized to decree more sweeping prohibitions and 
restrictions of importation than are|provided in Sees. 12 and 13. 

Further prohibitions and restrictions concerning the introduc- 
tion of meat are provided in case of the possibility that in the 
future new meat preparations which can not be inspected might be 
introduced. 

Section 18. 

The inspection (Sec. 1) of horses must be made by officially recognized 
veterinarians. 

Dealing in horse meat, as well as the importation of such meat inside of the 
customs line, shall take place only under a designation in the German language which 
makes the meat recognizable as horse meat. 

Dealing in and the use of horse meat shall be permitted to meat dealers and 
hotel, saloon, and restaurant keepers only with a license from the police authorities; 
the license shall be revocable at any time. Horse meat may be delivered to the 



88 REGULATION OP TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

above-named tradespeople only so far as such a license has been granted to them. Irt 
the business rooms of these persons it must be made especially evident, by means 
of an intelligible sign in a conspicuous place, that horse meat is dealt in or used. 

Meat dealers shall not offer for sale nor sell horse meat in the same rooms in 
which meat from other animals is offered for sale or sold. 

The Federal Council is authorized to order that the above regidations be applied 
to asses, mules, dogs, and other animals which are more rarely slaughtered. 

(a) Exclusive competency of veterinarians for the inspection of horses. 
The inspection of horses must be performed by approved veter- 
inarians, since the recognition of glanders and the formation of 
judgment on the fitness for food of horse meat requires a mass of 
technical information such as is usually not possessed by assistant 
inspectors. 

(b) The requirement of a declaration for horse meat is justified 
by the inferior market value which horse meat possesses as com- 
pared with beef and other kinds of meat and by the antipathy 
which many people feel against the consumption of horse meat. 
For similar reasons, declaration is indicated for the meat of other 
solipeds and dogs, as well as for the meat of goats and buffaloes. 

Section 20. 

Meat which has been subjected within the German Empire to the official 
inspection according to Sees. 8 to 16, may be made subject to an official reinspection 
only for the purpose of determining whether it has spoiled in the meantime, or 
whether it has otherwise suffered any change in its condition, rendering it injurious 
to health. 

Enactments of the federated governments, according to which, for communities 
with public slaughterhouses, the dealing in fresh meat may be subjected to restrictions, 
especially to obligatory inspection within the community, shall 'remain unaffected, 
with the proviso that their applicability shall not be made dependent upon the origin 
of the meat. 

(a) Repeated official inspection. The text of the law declares that 
the previously customary repeated inspection of meat which has 
already been inspected inland has given rise to many complaints on 
account of the expenses and other inconveniences which are con- 
nected with it. Such a repeated inspection will be dispensed with 
for the future, for every inspection carried out according to the 
provisions of the Imperial law will be regarded as binding upon the 
entire Empire. This holds good especially for che inspection which 
is provided for foreign meat. The law proceeds, therefore, upon 
the principle that in general a single inspection is sufficient and 
must be binding upon the entire Empire. This principle, however, 
requires certain qualifications. In the first place, reinspection must 
be prompt in so far as it is a question of determining whether 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 89 

changes have occurred (since the performance of the inspection) 
which may make the meat unfit for use. The draft of the law, 
therefore, provided that in the latter case a re-inspection should be 
permitted. Moreover, it is apparent that the general control of 
food materials, which is based on the food law, shall not be abro- 
gated in the case of meat which is inspected according to the 
provisions of the law. The requirement in Sec. 29 leaves no doubt 
on this point. This control, moreover, is indispensable, since other- 
wise it can not be determined whether the meat which is brought 
to the market has ever been inspected and whether it bears the 
stamp required in Sec. 19 as evidence of inspection, as well as for 
the purpose of preventing the offering for sale of spoiled meat or 
meat which has subsequently become unfit for use in any other 
way ; for example, meat treated with injurious preserving re-agents. 
A general secondary inspection can no longer be ordered by the 
local authorities. On the other hand, the authority of the police to 
undertake subsequent official inspection remains unaffected in 
individual instances, especially in case of suspicion of violation of 
the provisions of meat inspection or of failure of the meat inspector 
to perform his duty, as well as from reasons of public sanitation. 
The same holds good for subsequent tests which may be required 
when in a particular case doubt may be entertained concerning the 
findings of the meat inspector and concerning decision regarding 
the fitness of the meat for food. 

(b) Especial provisions for communities toitli public abattoirs. 
According to the Prussian Slaughterhouse Law, it may be 
ordered, in communities which have erected a public slaughter- 
house, that no meat which is not slaughtered in a public 
abattoir can be offered for sale within the district until it is sub- 
jected to an inspection by expert inspectors for a fee which is 
returned to the communal treasury. This provision, which includes 
a secondary inspection of meat introduced from outside localities, 
removes to a certain extent the scruples which might be entertained 
with regard to provision of Sec. 20, paragraph 1. Considered from 
a purely theoretical standpoint, the latter provision is correct. 
From the practical aspects of the affair, however, the authority for 
repeated complete inspection should not be excluded. The annual 
reports of the municipal meat inspection at Berlin offer convincing 
proof that it is absolutely necessary to subject introduced meat to a 
complete subsequent inspection, even when it has been already 
' inspected elsewhere, before it is admitted to the market at the point 
of introduction. In order to give a single example, trichinae are 



90 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

almost annually found in hogs which were inspected at the place of 
slaughter and were admitted to the market as apparently free from 
trichina. Exactly the same conditions prevail in other cities. On 
the basis of similar experiences it is provided in the Grand Duchy 
of Baden, which at the present time possesses the best organization 
of meat inspection inside of the German Empire, that all meat 
introduced from one part of Baden into another shall be again 
carefully inspected before it is offered for sale in the second locality 
and shall be certified by the meat inspector. The repetition of the 
inspection of meat which is transported from one inspection district 
into another must be considered as absolutely necessary, since it 
furnishes the only effective means of preventing evasions of meat 
inspection, false stamping, and defective inspection. Without 
special provisions in favor of communities with public abattoirs, 
the system of meat inspection hereby established would be com- 
pelled to take a step backward. The same undesirable conditions 
would be brought about which were fortunately obviated in the 
Kingdom of Prussia in the year 1887 by the amendment to the 
slaughterhouse law. 

Section 21. 

In the industrial preparation of meat no materials or processes shall be used 
"which are capable of imparting to the wares a condition injurious to health. It is 
forbidden to import from abroad such prepared meat or to offer it for sale, to sell it, 
or otherwise to bring it into traffic. 

The Federal Council shall determine the materials and the processes to which 
these regulations shall be applied. 

The Federal Council shall order how far the regulations of paragraph 1 are 
applicable also to special materials and processes which are apt to conceal an unwhole- 
some or inferior quality of the wares. 

Harmful preserving materials and stuffs which are calculated to 
conceal the dangerous or inferior character of the products. By means 
of the prohibition of the use of the above mentioned materials, 
which is to be expected in regulations issued by the Federal 
Council, all uncertainty which had been caused by divergent 
opinions of experts concerning permission for the addition of boric, 
salicylic, and sulphurous acids, and coloring materials to meat and 
meat products, are removed. 

Section 22. 

The Federal Council is authorized: 

1. To issue regulations relative to determining whether persons possess sufficient 
^knowledge to act as meat inspectors. 

2. To establish general principles, according to which the inspection of food 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 1)1 

animals and of meat is to be carried out, "and for the further treatment of food 
animals and of meat in ease they are not passed. 

3. To make the necessary arrangements for carrying out the provisions of Sec. 
12 and for determining the fees for the inspection of meat brought inside the customs 
line. 

By the fact that the authority mentioned in Sec. 22 is reserved 
for the Federal Council, uniformity in the execution of meat 
inspection is assured. 

Section 23. 

The laws of the federated governments determine who has to bear the cost of the 
official inspection (Sec. 1). In all other matters, the necessary regulations for carry- 
ing out the law shall be issued by the governments of the federated States, so far as 
the Federal Council has not been declared competent or in so far as the Federal 
Council makes no use of the authority conferred upon it by Sec. 22. 

" The laws of the federated governments." According to the 
commentary of Rohrscheidt in the report of the commission, it is 
not necessary that the provisions in question should be embodied 
in a law. This may be accomplished by means of ordinances. The 
particular federal State concerned decides whether a law is neces- 
sary or not. It is not prescribed in the Imperial law for the- 
individual States which method of procedure they shall choose. 

Section 24. 

Regulations of the federated governments in regard to trichina inspection and 
the dealing in and use of meat which, although fit as food for man, is consider- 
ably diminished in its nutritive and food value ; further, regulations ot the federated 
governments establishing more extensive obligations than does this law relative to : 
(1) The animals to be subjected to inspection, (2) the carrying out of the inspections 
by officially recognized veterinarians, (3) the dealing in rejected meat or in meat of 
animals designated in Sec. 18, are permissible on the condition that their applicability 
shall not be made dependent upon the place of origin of the food animal or of the 
meat. 

(a) Provisions by decree of individual Sta,tes concerning trichina 
inspection. Sec. 24 furnishes the means of introducing a general 
trichina inspection and, therefore, also for hogs which are slaugh- 
tered for use in the household of the owner. 

(b) Meat of inferior value. Meat of inferior value requires the 
same trade restrictions as meat which was qualifiedly fit for use, 
but has been rendered utilizable as food for man. (Compare 
p. 81.) Through Sec. 24 it is made possible for the authorities of 
the individual States to regulate traffic in meat of inferior value by 
suitable provisions. 

(c) Further provisions with reference to the animals which are to be 
subject to inspection and to the execution of meat inspection by approved 



92 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

veterinarians. In general the law must determine the minimum 
requirements which must be fulfilled throughout the Empire with 
reference to the inspection of food animals and meat. While it 
remains within the province of the individual federal States to issue 
further more detailed regulations for their Territory in so far as the 
necessity exists, it is plainly indicated, as in the interest of the most 
effective preservation of the uniformity of the law, to set certain 
limits in this connection to the legislation of the individual States. 
For this purpose in Sec. 24 those points are separately brought out 
to which the authority of the federal States shall be limited. 
According to Sec. 1, the extension of compulsory inspection may be 
increased in two directions ; viz., by extension to other animals than 
those mentioned in Sec. 1 or declared by the Federal Council as sub- 
ject to inspection ; and again by removal or a restriction of the in- 
spection in favor of slaughtering for home use provided for in Sec. 2. 
According to Sec. 2, it is permissible to limit the appointment 
of laymen as meat inspectors and to entrust the execution of 
inspection exclusively to approved veterinarians to a greater extent 
than the draft of Sec. 18, paragraphs 1 and 5, provided ; and this 
liolds good for certain kinds of animals or for animals suspected of 
Toeing diseased or for meat which from its appearance awakens 
sanitary scruples. 

Section 25. 

The Federal Council shall determine how far the provisions of this law apply to 
meat imported into that part of the Empire situated outside of the customs line. 

Localities outside of the customs line. In localities outside the 
customs line, the regulations of the law do not apply immediately. 
The fact that particularly in the regions of the free ports we have 
to do frequently with a mere exchange with foreign countries makes 
a considerable number of measures provided in the law appear 
inapplicable in such States, or at any rate unnecessary. The 
requirement of introduction of regulations of the law will differ in 
various regions outside of the customs line according to local 
conditions. The introduction of a regulation having regard to this 
point in the law would, however, meet with difficulties. The deter- 
mination, therefore, of how far the provisions of the law shall be 
"binding for localities outside of the customs line is left tc the 
authority of the Federal Council. 

Section 26. 

Imprisonment in jail not exceeding six months and a fine not exceeding one 
thousand five hundred marks, or either of these penalties, shall be imposed upon — 



MEAT INSPECTION LAW 93 

1. Any person who knowingly acts in contravention of Sec. 9, paragraphs 2, 4; 
Sec. 10, paragraphs 2, 3; Sec. 12, paragraph 1; or Sec. 21, paragraphs 1, 2; or of a 
prohibition based upon Sec. 21, paragraph 3. 

2. Any person who shall knowingly bring into traffic as food or condiment for 
man meat which has been imported contrary to the regulations of Sec. 12, paragraph 
1, or meat which has been rendei'ed unfit for human food according to Sec. 17. 

3. Any person who shall fraudulently affix or alter the marks provided for in 
Sec. 19, or who shall knowingly offer for sale or sell meat on which the marks have 
been fraudulently affixed, altered, or removed. 

Section 27. 

A fine not exceeding one hundred and fifty marks or imprisonment will be 
imposed upon — 

1. Any person who through carelessness shall commit one of the acts designated 
in Sec. 26, numbers 1 and 2. 

2. Any person who shall undertake to slaughter an animal before it has been 
subjected to the inspection prescribed in this law, or ordered on authority of Sec. 1, 
paragraph 1, sentence 2; Sec. 3; Sec. 18, paragraph 5; or Sec. 24. 

3. Any person who shall bring into traffic meat before it has been subjected to 
the inspection prescribed in this law, or ordered on authority of Sec. 1, paragraph \> 
sentence 2 ; Sec. 3 ; Sec. 14, paragraph 1 ; Sec. 18, paragraph 5 ; or Sec. 24. 

Section 28. 

In the cases in Sec. 26, numbers 1 and 2, and in Sec. 27, number 1, the confisca- 
tion of the meat shall be ordered in addition to the penalty. In cases in Sec. 26, 
number 3, and Sec. 27, numbers 2 to 4, the seizure of the meat, or of the animal, may 
be ordered in addition to the penalty. In the case of confiscation, it is immaterial 
whether the object seized belongs to the condemned person or not. 

If the prosecution or the condemnation of a given person is not possible, then 
the seizure may be ordered independently. 

Penal provisions. With reference to the penalties provided in 
Sec. 26, paragraph 3 (the fraudulent use or fraudulent changing of 
the stamps of the kind mentioned in Sec. 19), the draft of the law 
states that the provisions of the criminal statutes are not sufficient 
to cover cases of the fraudulent use of these marks or the fraudulent 
changing of them as such, as well as the offering for sale or sale of 
meat from which the stamps have been removed. Moreover, cases 
of intentional offering for sale or sale of meat on which the stamp 
has been fraudulently placed or fraudently changed would, as a 
rule, be punished as forgery according to the general provisions of 
Sec. 270 or Sees. 267 and 268 of the criminal law. The application 
of these provisions, however, would lead to undoubted hardships 
on account of the severity of the punishments provided by these 
laws. It appeared to be proper, therefore, to establish a special 
penal provision in this case and to provide merely the punishment 
required foi* violations of the law for all cases which come into 
consideration in this connection, since in the first place they are 



94 EEGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

violations of purely police control measures. Otherwise, the pro- 
visions of the criminal law shall remain unaffected. 

The provision of Sec. 28, paragraph 1, according to which in 
cases mentioned in Sec. 26, paragraphs 1 and 2, and Sec. 27, 
paragraph 1, procedure shall be instituted for seizure, is justified by 
the especially daugerous character of the meat which is presupposed 
in these cases. In other cases the seizure of the meat is left to the 
discretion of the court. 

Section 29. 

The provisions of the law of May 14, 1879 (page 145, Reichsgesetzbl.), regarding 
the traffic in foods, condiments and articles of use, remain unchanged. The pro- 
visions of Sec. 16 of said law shall also be applicable to offences against the provisions 
of the present law. 

Further validity of the food law. For the avoidance of uncer- 
tainty, it was expressly stated in the law that the regulations of the 
food law (see p. 95) should remain unaffected. The provision of 
Sec. 29 is made with reference to the favorable effects which, 
according to past experience, have been produced by the public 
announcement of condemnations in the execution of the food law 
and its amendments. 

Those provisions of this law which relate to the adoption of 
the arrangements necessary for carrying out the law for the inspec- 
tion of food animals and of meat shall take effect on the day of the 
promulgation of this law. 

Section 30. 

Those provisions of this law which relate to the adoption of the arrangements 
necessary for carrying out the law for the inspection of food animals and of meat 
shall take effect on the day of the promulgation of this law. 

Furthermore, the time when the law goes into effect, either wholly or in part, 
shall be fixed by an imperial order with the assent of the Federal Council. 

Enforcement of the various provisions of the laiv. For the execu- 
tion of the general inspection of food animals and meat, as was 
provided for in the law, detailed administrative measures, especially 
the creation of the machinery for carrying out inspection and of a 
personnel of inspection competent to carry out their functions, are 
required. While, therefore, on the one hand, it appeared to be 
necessary that all those provisions of the law which had reference 
to the establishment of these institutions should at once become 
operative, consideration must be had in determining the time for 
putting into force the other provisions of the law to secure a suffi- 
cient period of tiine for these preparations. It was not desirable 



FOOD INSPECTION LAW 95 

that this period should be determined in the law itself, since it 
could not be foreseen with certainty what length of time would be 
required for these preparations by the Imperial government and by 
the individual federal States. According to the precedent of other 
Imperial laws, the determination of the time for putting into force 
the requirements in question was reserved for an Imperial pro- 
clamation with the consent of the Federal Council, 

2.— Imperial Law Concerning Traffic in Food, Condiments, 
and Manufactured Articles, of May 14, 1879. 

Sec. 1. Traffic in food and condiments, as well as in playthings, 
tapestry, colors, eating, drinking, and cooking utensils, and in 
petroleum, is subject to inspection, according to the provisions of 
this law. 

Sec. 2. Police authorities are empowered to enter places in 
in which articles of the sort mentioned in Sec. 1 are offered for 
sale, during the usual business hours, or while the places are open 
for traffic. They are empowered to take samples at their discretion 
of articles of the sort mentioned in Sec. 1 which they find in the 
places in question or which are offered for sale in public places, and 
to give a receipt for the same, after which the articles are to be 
inspected. Upon request, a part of the sample may be officially 
closed, sealed, and left with the owner. A recompense at the rate 
of the usual selling price is to be made for the sample which is 
taken if the inspection shows that the material is utilizable. 

Sec. 3. The police authorities are empowered in case of per- 
sons who are condemned to confinement on the basis of Sees. 10, 12, 
and 13 of this law, to undertake inspection at such a time as is 
described in Sec. 2 in places in which articles of the sort mentioned 
in Sec. 1 are offered for sale or which serve for the preservation or 
preparation of such articles for sale. This authority begins at the 
time when judgment is pronounced and ends after the lapse of three 
years reckoned from the day on which the sentence was completed, 
shortened, or annulled. 

Sec. 4. The competency of the authorities and officials with 
regard to the measures described in Sees. 2 and 3 is determined in 
accordance with regulations made by the government concerned. 
State regulations which give the police further authority than is 
mentioned in Sees. 2 and 3 remain unaffected.* 



* This holds true especially with regard to the unannounced inspection of store 
rooms and factories by meat inspectors iu Southern Germany, which inspection is 



96 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

Sec. 5. Regulations may be made for the whole Empire by- 
Imperial decree with the consent of the Federal Council for the 
protection of health, prohibiting : 

1. Certain methods of preservation and packing of food and 
condiments which are intended for sale. 

2. The public sale or offering' for sale of food and condiments 
of a certain character or under claim of a quality which really does 
not belong to them. 

3. The sale or offering for sale for the purpose of slaughter 
of animals which are suffering from certain diseases, as well as the 
sale or offering for sale of the meat of animals which were affected 
with certain diseases. 

4. The utilization of certain materials and coloring matters for 
the preparation of clothing, playthings, tapestry, eating, drinking, 
and cooking utensils, as well as the public sale or offering for sale 
of articles which were prepared in a manner contrary to this- 
prohibition. 

5. The public sale or offering for sale of petroleum of a certain 
character. 

Sec. 6. By means of an Imperial decree with the consent of 
the Federal Council, the preparation, sale, and offering for sale of 



.ordered for all butchers. The meat inspectors of Southern Germany are required to 
perform not only the prescribed inspection of stock yards and slaughterhouses, but 
also the stalls and workrooms, as well as the rooms of the butchers, including their 
cellars, ice chests, sleeping rooms for the assistants, and also the sales rooms and store 
rooms of all persons engaged in meat traffic. This inspection takes place at least 
every two weeks, and inspection without notice is made, as a rule, each week of the 
premises of dealers in wild game, fowl, and fish, for the purpose of determining the 
cleanliness and other observations of the police regulations concerning the traffic in 
meat, etc., and, in case conditions are not found to be in accordance with the law., 
the required procedure is to be taken without delay. 

Without such inspection smuggling in uninspected meat, the manufacture of 
sausages, and the cleanliness of the butcher's premises can not be controlled. 
Unannounced inspection of the sales room and work rooms of butchers make, there- 
fore, a necessary supplement to true meat inspection, i.e., the inspection of food 
animals before and after slaughter. 

The Imperial Government President in Kassel, with regard to Sees. 2 and 3 of 
the food law, ordered the district veterinarians of his district on December 27. 1892, 
to make use of the authority which belonged to them as officials of the veterinary 
police, to undertake inspection of places open for traffic, and to take samples for 
inspection. The local police authorities are ordered immediately after notification by 
the court officials to communicate to the district veterinarians of the Kassel district 
the names of such persons as have been condemned to confinement on the basis of 
Sees. 10, 12, and 13 of the food law. According to the regulations concerning 
industrial pursuits, entrance into the work rooms of butchers is at all times permitted 
to police officials. 



FOOD INSPECTION LAW 97 

articles which are intended for the adulteration of food and con- 
diments may be forbidden or restricted within the limits of the 
Empire. 

Sec. 7. Imperial decrees issued on the basis of Sees. 5 and 6 
are to be immediately laid before the Reichstag, if in session, other- 
wise at its next session. They may be annulled by order of the 
Reichstag. 

Sec. 8. All persons who violate decrees issued according to 
Sees. 5 and 6 are to be punished with a fine of 150 marks or by 
imprisonment. State regulations can not provide a more severe 
punishment. 

Sec. 9. All persons who, contrary to the provisions of Sees. 2 
to 4, refuse permission to enter or to take samples or to make 
inspection are to be punished with a fine of from 50 to 100 marks 
or with imprisonment. 

Sec. 10. Imprisonment not exceeding six months and a fine 
not exceeding 1,500 marks, or either, is provided for (1) all persons 
who imitate or adulterate food and condiments for the purpose of 
deception, in business and traffic in them ; (2) all persons who 
knowingly sell food or condiments which are fraudulent imitations, 
or adulterated, and without stating this fact, or who offer them for 
sale under a deceptive label. If the actions mentioned in Sec. 10, 
number 2, are performed from carelessness, the punishment is a fine 
not exceeding 150 marks or imprisonment. 

Sec. 12. Imprisonment, together with the possible loss of civil 
rights, is provided for (1) all persons who purposely prepare articles 
which are intended to serve as food or condiment for others in such 
a manner that they may be injurious to human health, and for all 
persons who knowingly sell, offer for sale, or otherwise traffic in as 
food or condiments articles the consumption of which would be 
injurious to human health ; (2) all persons who purposely prepare 
clothing materials, playthings, tapestry, eating, drinking and cooking 
utensils, or petroleum in such a manner that the intended or future 
use of these articles is likely to be injurious to human health ; and 
also all persons who knowingly sell, offer for sale, or otherwise 
have traffic in such articles. 

Attempted evasions are punishable. 

If on account of these forbidden actions a serious bodily injury 
or death of a human being is caused, the punishment is confinement 
in the workhouse for five years. 

Sec. 13. If in cases mentioned in Sec. 12 the consumption or 
use of the article was likely to injure human health, and if this fact 



98 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

was known to the vendor, the punishment is confinement in the 
workhouse for ten years ; and if by the action in question the death 
of a human being is caused, confinement in the workhouse for not 
less than ten years or for life. In addition to the punishment, 
police supervision must be permitted. 

Sec. 14. If any one of the actions characterized in Sees. 12 or 
13 are performed through carelessness, the punishment is a fine not 
exceeding 1,000 marks or imprisonment not exceeding six months; 
and if through the action in question an injury is caused to the 
health of a human being, the punishment is imprisonment for one 
year, or, if the death of a human being was caused, imprisonment 
for from one month to three years. 

Sec. 15. In the cases mentioned in Sees. 12 to 14, in addition 
to the punishment, those articles which were prepared, sold, offered 
for sale, or otherwise brought into trade in a manner contrary to 
the above mentioned regulations may be seized without regard to 
whether they belong to the condemned person or not. In the cases 
mentioned in Sees. 8, 10, and 11, the articles may also be seized. 
If in cases mentioned in Sees. 12 to 14 the prosecution or conviction 
of a certain person is not possible, the articles may rightly be seized. 

Sec. 16. In rendering judgment or announcing punishment it 
may be ordered that the conviction shall be publicly announced at 
the expense of the guilty person. At the request of the acquitted 
defendant, the court must order the public announcement of the 
acquittal. The State Treasury bears the expenses in so far as they 
are not imposed upon the plaintiff. The manner of making the 
announcement is to be determined in the order. 

Sec. 17. If there exists in the locality where the deed was 
committed a public institution for the technical investigation of 
foods and condiments, the fines which are imposed on the basis of 
this law, in so far as they belong to the State, are to be returned to 
the Treasury, which bears the cost of the administration of the 
institution. 

Amendment to the Law Concerning Food, Condiments, and 
Manufactured Articles, of June 29, 1887. 

By the amendment of June 29, 1887, Sec. 16 of the law of May 
14, 1879, receives the following additional provision : Whenever a 
legal conviction takes place in consequence of the police inspection 
of articles of the sort mentioned in Sec. 1, the costs of the police 
inspection must be borne by the convicted party. They are to be 



FOOD INSPECTION LAW 99 

^determined at the same time with the costs of the legal procedure 
and to be collected. 

Notes on the Law of May 14, 1879. 

(a) General. 

Until the passage of the Imperial Meat Inspection Law, the 
food law was the only means for applying Imperial law to the 
control of meat traffic. It had become apparent, however, that 
the peculiar nature of meat rendered it impossible that the offering 
for sale and sale of meat could be regulated by the general pro- 
visions concerning the whole subject of traffic in food materials. It 
is necessary also to consider another fact which rendered impossible 
a, thorough meat inspection on the basis of the food law, namely, the 
want of regulations for executing the Imperial law of May 14, 1879. 
Finally, in this law no account was taken of the experience which 
had been had in the practice of meat inspection in southern 
■Germany before the passage of the law. This is particularly 
apparent from the fact that the food law did not expressly provide 
for traffic in defective (spoiled) meat upon the freibank. This 
defect was disagreeably felt in the practice of meat inspection. 

The food law, the provisions of which are not abrogated by the 
Imperial Meat Inspection Law (see p. 94), has, since the enforce- 
ment of the latter law, the value of a supplementary law, and 
remains for the future the legal foundation for criminal procedure 
in traffic with "spoiled, imitated, adulterated, and injurious" meat. 
The sources which are drawn upon in explaining the provisions of 
the food law are the material elaborated in the Imperial. Health 
Office for a technical foundation of the food law, the report of the 
Heichstag Commission, and the proceedings of the Reichstag in 
connection with the draft of the law.* Meyer and Finkelnburg 
called attention to the fact that in explaining the food law we must 
consider not only the decisions of the courts, but especially those 
of the Imperial Court which have reference to the punishments 
provided in Sees. 10 to 16 of the law and which are of great valne 
in making a commentary on them. "For although a complete 
retrial of the facts established in the trial court in a particular case 
may not be indicated for the Imperial Court by the nature of the 
legal procedure under revision, it nevertheless has an opportunity, 
in making a review for the purpose of determining to what extent 

* Compare Meyer and Finkelnburg, Commentaries upon the Law of May 14, 1879. 



L cfC. 



100 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

actual error appears to have been committed, to express an opinion 
concerning the meaning of the provisions of the law, and to indicate- 
clearly their application." 

The decisions of the Imperial Court have given an explanation 
of special provisions of the law, especially the concept " spoiled," 
which differ essentially from those contained in the materials for 
the technical foundation of the law * 

(b) Special Notes on Secs. 10 to 14 of the Food Law, 

Partly according to the commentaries of Meyer and Finkelnburg and 
partly according to later decisions of the Imperial Court concern- 
ing the application of the paragraphs cited from the Law of 
May 14, 1879. 

Section 10. 

Imprisonment not exceeding six months and a fine not exceeding 1,500 marks, 
or either, is provided for (1) all persons who imitate or adulterate food and condiments 
for the purpose of deception in business and traffic in them ; (2) all persons who 
knowingly sell food or condiments which are fraudulent, imitations, or adulterated, 
and without stating this fact, or who offer them for sale under a deceptive label. If 
the actions mentioned in Sec. 10, number 2, are performed from carelessness, the 
punishment is a fine not exceeding 150 marks or imprisonment. 

(a) "For the purpose of deception," " ivithout mentioning the fact," 
and " under a deceptive label.'" The actual status of the misdemeanor 
for which punishment is provided in Sec. 10 differs from that of 
Deception (Sec. 263 of the Criminal Law Statute) in that for its ful- 
filment neither the "intention of obtaining illegitimate profit for 
one's self or for a third person," nor the creation of an erroneous 
impression " by the representation of false conditions or by the 
suppression or covering up of true conditions" need be present. 
The violation of Sec. 10, however, may be a case of deception. 

According to Sec. 10, it is only necessary that the act be 
calculated to deceive others or that it be done with the knowledge 



* The Royal Prussian Ministers for Traffic, Industries, Interior, etc., explained 
to the representatives of several trades in the decree of September 14, 1883, that the 
explanation of Sec. 10 could not be based exclusively on the "materials" of the law, 
which proceeded upon quite different views from those of traffic and industry. It 
was further stated that the government presidents should instruct the police officials 
under them that they should have regard in all doubtful cases to the interests of 
trade and traffic in preparing a legal prosecution for adulterations of food and condi- 
ments. It was held, however, that it was not the purpose of the law to limit the legal 
and police prosecution to actually dangerous adulterations. The judical officers'were 
given similar instructions by the Minister of Justice. 



FOOD INSPECTION LAW 101 

ihat it is calculated to deceive. According to the intention of the 
law the vendor must do all within his power to make clear to 
intending purchasers the true character of the wares. If the dealer 
knows that the wares are spoiled, imitations, or adulterated, he 
must state this expressly or must otherwise make it apparent. 
From this text it is plain that the law of May 14, 1879, was not 
intended to prohibit absolutely the sale of adulterated or spoiled 
food materials or imitations, but, as already indicated by Schmidt- 
Miilheim, it was intended simply to introduce a compulsory declara- 
tion for such food materials. 

In case of an effected sale, it is sufficient that silence was main- 
tained concerning the special character of the wares. In offering 
for sale it is not impossible that the vendor may make a truthful 
statement to the intending purchaser. On this account punishment 
is provided expressly for offering for sale " under a deceptive label," 
but not for offering for sale in general. " The determining factor 
is, however, deception concerning the character of the materials, 
not concerning their value ; both will occur simultaneously in most 
cases, but not necessarily." (von Schwarze.) 

By the term " offering for sale " is to be understood the inten- 
tion of selling a thing in general and the making known of this 
intention, even if but one person is present. It is erroneous to 
assume that the article in being offered for sale must be made 
accessible to the public for purchase (opinion of the Imperial 
Court, IV, Criminal Senate, July 7, 1887). The mere opening of a 
store before the beginning of business hours does not constitute an 
offering for sale of the meat which is contained in the store 
(Decision III, of January 14, 1886). 

Silence concerning the spoiled condition of meat which has 
been sold does not presuppose a suppression of the true conditions 
(compare Deception). On the other hand, the spoiled condition, 
when known to both vendor and vendee, must not be concealed 
(Decision IV, of October 1, 1886). In harmony with this statement 
the Imperial Court handed down a decision September 29, 1894, " if, 
on the other hand, the defendant knew that the purchaser recognized 
the wares as spoiled when she bought them, calling attention 
expressly to this defect would have been a useless formality which 
could not have had any influence either upon the knowledge or the 
intention of the purchaser." 

(b) Imitations. Under imitations is understood "the prepara- 
tion of a food material purposely in a way so that it appears to be 
different from what it is in reality " (Decision I, of May 15, 1882). 



102 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

In the case which served as a basis for the opinion just cited,, 
so-called schwartenmagen, contrary to the custom of the locality 
where the case was tried, was not prepared from blood, chopped 
meat, bacon rind, and bacon of hogs, but was made of two-thirds 
sinews and tripe and one-third blood, with a little fat. 

The preparation of toDgue sausage without tongue must also be 
characterized as an imitation of food material ; similarly, the pre- 
paration of sausage from dog meat, since the making of sausage 
from this meat, which does not pass in ordinary traffic as a food 
material, gives the product the appearance of a food material which, 
is suitable for man. (Decision II, of May 5, 1891.) ' 

(c) Adulteration. According to Meyer and Finkelnburg, the 
attempt to make a legal definition for the concept " adulteration '* 
was abandoned by the Reichstag and the explanation of the term 
was left to legal practice and science. Since, however, the essential 
part of a violation of Sec. 10 consists in the act of deception, the 
question of adulteration can only be answered on the basis of the 
normal methods of preparation and manufacture. These differ, as 
is well known, in different regions. 

Thus, for example, the addition of a small quantity of wheat 
flour to Rostbratwurst (10 to 12 pounds of flour to 5 kg. of meat) is- 
no adulteration, if to the people in the region in question such am 
addition is " in no way an unknown or unexpected admixture ; " for, 
on the contrary, " flour belongs to a savory bratwurst according to 
popular opinion." (Decision III, December 21, 1882.) 

Under adulterated food materials, we understand such as do not 
possess those qualities which are to be expected in actual traffic. 
The adulteration of a food material may be accomplished in two 
ways : (1) By substantial deterioration ; (2) by furnishing a material 
with the appearance of a better quality. 

The addition of a dough made of potato starch and water to 
sausages, contrary to the usual method of preparing sausages in a 
given place, according to which only pure meat sausages were 
understood as passing under the la.bel in question, is an adultera- 
tion. (Decision I, of October 4, 1883.) 

Coloring the gills of fish by means of a red stain, so as to give 
them the appearance of fresh fish, is an adulteration (Decision II, 
of December 2, 1881). Likewise the coloring of sausages with dye- 
stuff in order to preserve the color of fresh material for a period 
during which without this manipulation they would have shown by 
the alteration of the natural color that they were not fresh, is an 
adulteration (Decision III, of February 18, 1882). 



FOOD INSPECTION LAW 103 

An undoubted case of adulteration is the coloring of old meat 
in order to lend it the appearance of fresh meat, and finally, the 
coloring of a sausage, consisting for the most part of paste, in order 
to give it the appearance of a meat sausage, is a double adulteration. 

The existence of an adulteration is not excluded by the fact 
that the person concerned intended to give the food or condiment 
the appearance of a better quality for the purpose of deception, 
but actually brought about only a deterioration of the product. 
(Decision I, of February 28, 1887.) 

(d) Food condiments which are "spoiled" The punishments which 
are provided for trafficking in " spoiled " food materials were, until 
the passage of the Imperial Meat Inspection Law, the most impor- 
tant basis for the regulation of traffic in meat which was not 
dangerous to health but which showed certain defects. This much- 
discussed term still possesses practical significance/since " spoiled " 
meat is declared to be meat of an inferior value, concerning the 
traffic in which regulations were unfortunately not included in tha 
Imperial Meat Inspection Law. 

The definition of the term " spoiled " has been the subject of a 
large number of decisions by the Imperial Court. At first, after 
the "passage of the law of May 14, 1879, these opinions were based 
on quite other points of view than the later opinions. The Imperial 
Court at first declared food materials or condiments to be spoiled 
when they were not in a normal condition or when they varied from 
a normal condition to such a degree that they were not suitable for 
human food according to popular opinion. This definition corres- 
ponds to that of the term " spoiled in the sense of Sec. 367 7 of the 
Criminal Law Statute," which forbade the sale of "spoiled" meat 
in general and was, therefore, based on the assumption that such 
meat was not fit for human food. Sec. 10, paragraph 2, of the food 
law, however, differs in one important point from Sec. 367 7 of the 
Criminal Law Statute, since the former does not prohibit the sale 
or offering for sale absolutely, but only when these transactions are 
made without stating the real character of the food material or with 
the practice of deception concerning the same. Logically, therefore, 
the sale of meat which the food law characterizes as "spoiled" 
must be permitted without punishment if the sale takes place under 
a statement of the particular character of the article. By far the 
greater number of the decisions of the Imperial Court has con- 
sidered as spoiled food materials those which vary from the normal 
condition and which are less suitable and utilizable for a given 
purpose, and also such as in and of themselves are not fit to serve 



104 . BEGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

as food materials, but which, in consequence of peculiar properties, 
were either not to be sold at all, if the true character was known, 
or, at least, would not bring the price which is asked for material of 
a normal origin. Accordingly, the concept " spoiled " may be 
denned as follows : In the sense of the food law all meat is spoiled 
which, without being dangerous to health, shows considerable 
alterations of its substance, or comes from animals which were 
affected with serious diseases. 

In this explanation I believe I have provided a positive basis 
for the determination of meat which — and this is the main point in 
question — must be excluded from free traffic, but which can be 
admitted to restricted sale on the freibank. The word " may " is to 
be emphasized, since the spoiled condition may reach such a degree 
that the meat loses its character as a food material, becomes meat 
" unfit " for use, in the sense of the Imperial Meat Inspection Law, 
and is, therefore, to be excluded even from restricted sale. The 
concept spoiled meat is synonymous with that of inferior meat, 
since all meat which can be sold as spoiled is rendered of inferior 
value on account of the necessity of its express characterization as- 
such. Declared meat can find purchasers only when sold at a lower 
price. 

Against my definition of the concept " spoiled " objection may 
perhaps be made that the expression " serious disease," of which I 
make use, is too poorly defined to furnish assurances of a uniform 
action. This objection, however, does not apply. The expert meat 
inspector must, by reason of his scientific training, be able to judge 
what, from the standpoint of sanitary police (not from a therapeutic 
standpoint), must be considered as a serious disease. For example, 
we may characterize as serious diseases of food animals, all acute 
and part of the chronic infectious diseases. In the majority of them 
the meat is not dangerous to health, but only " spoiled in the sense 
of the food law," as, for example, in pleuro-pneumonia, hemorrhagic 
septicemia, swine erysipelas, swine plague, and hog cholera. The 
conditions are similar in the case of other diseases which frequently 
give occasion for emergency slaughter (for example, parturient 
paralysis, traumatic pericarditis, etc.) In all these cases, in addition 
to the origin of the meat from animals which were seriously diseased, 
we must also consider that the meat differs objectively from normal 
meat which is accepted in ordinary business traffic, in so far as, in 
consequence of incomplete bleeding, it possesses poor keeping 
qualities and an associated inferior value. Such meat is suitable 
neither for preservation nor for the manufacture of sausages, but 



FOOD INSPECTION LA.W 105 

must be eaten soon or it will begin to decompose. For this reason, 
in the sale of such meat, it is desirable that the special character 
of the wares should be made known to the purchaser.* 

Since pathological processes in the animal body do not take 
place in a schematic manner, it is evident that there must be 
cases upon the boundary line between " serious " and " not serious." 
These cases must be loft to the discretion of the expert inspector. 
They may be confidently intrusted to such persons, since they are 
rare and since the chief problem consists in separating the decidedly 
*' serious" from the decidedly "not serious," and this, according to 
past experience, is not a difficult matter. 

Noteworthy Decisions of the Imperial Court Concerning "Spoiled" in 
the Sense of Section 10 2 of the Food Law. 

According to a decision of the First Criminal Senate of the 
Imperial Court, of October 5, 1881, the variation from the normal is 
the decisive point in spoiled food materials in the sense of the law 
of May 14, 1879 ; and, in determining the normal, the common 
condition which is looked for by the purchasers or the public with 
reference to the character of the wares is decisive. An internal 
chemical decomposition is not necessary to the concept " spoiled." 
The deterioration may consist in a quantitative change of the 
constituents, as is the case, for example, in meat which is infested 
with harmless parasites, or such as have been rendered harmless. 
(Decision III, of October 5, 1881.) 

A food material is spoiled also if it is checked in its normal 
development. The normal condition in such cases has never 
existed, but it was expected to occur, as, for example, in the meat of 
unborn calves. (Decision II, of January 3, 1882.) 

The meat of diseased, or dead, as well as of emaciated animals 
is spoiled if the anomalous character of the meat was due to a 
disease which brought about a serious alteration of its constituents 
with reference to the fitness of the meat for human food. (Decisions 
I, of January 12, 1882, and III, of July 9, 1883.) 

An article is spoiled when its consumption creates disgust, not 
in the case of this or that individual person, according to their 

* The previous connection of meat with diseased parts is not sufficient in itself 
to fulfil the conception of spoiled meat. (Compare decision of the First Criminal 
Senate of the Imperial Court, page 112, and Strose, Ztschr. f. Milch and Fleisch 
Hyg. vol. 4). In harmony with this decision are the opinions contained in the more 
recent decrees concerning tuberculosis, that the meat of animals affected with 
localized tuberculosis may be admitted for sale without restriction, after the removal 
of the diseased parts. 



106 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

particular taste, but according to the general opinion, or according; 
to the opinion of that class of the population to which the intending 
purchasers belong. From this point of view it is not considered 
legally erroneous to look upon the fat of a measly hog as spoiled, 
even if it is not established that cysticerci have existed in the manipu- 
lated portions of the fat. In such cases we proceed on the theory 
that such fat, even if in and of itself it is not fit for food, is, never- 
theless, in consequence of the antipathy or disgust experienced with 
regard to such material by the public, either never bought with a 
knowledge of its true condition or at least does not bring a price 
which would be offered for meat of a normal origin (Decision II, 
of March 25, 1884). 

Disgust which exists merely in the imagination of the con- 
sumers without any objective foundation deserves no consideration. 
Only the quality of a food material which occasions objective 
disgust is sufficient to fulfil the conception of a spoiled condition. 
The previous connection of meat with disgusting parts does not in 
itself constitute the required objective foundation. " Some account 
is to be taken of the views of the public. The Court of Justice, 
however, was of the opinion that in a concrete case, dealing with 
persons who obtain their meat from the knackers, the assumption 
of disgust on the part of these buyers, who could not expect to 
receive a perfect quality of meat, is not justified. It is, therefore, 
not justifiable, in cases where mere previous connection of the 
meat with disgusting meat has been sufficiently considered accord- 
ing to the facts in the case, to look upon the parts which have 
lately been separated and sold as disgusting or even as spoiled'* 
(Decision I, 1894). 

The simple opinion of the public that a food material is of 
inferior value or less fit for food, while it remains possible that 
such material in reality possesses the same food value and the same 
fitness for food as normal meat, is not sufficient for the assumption 
of a "spoiled" quality. So far as the opinion of the public is. 
to be considered at all, it may be decided only in connection with 
the objective quality of the food material, whereby an effect is 
actually produced which is calculated to influence badly its utili- 
zation as food (Decision III., of September 28, 1885). 

The same decision contained also the opinion that it is neces- 
sary for satisfying the required conditions that the spoiled character 
be present at the time of the sale. A spoiled character of meat in 
the sense of Section 10 2 of the law of May 14, 1879, is also to be 
assumed when the variations from the normal character are due to- 



FOOD INSPECTION LAW 107 

a disease which was present before slaughter and which was 
associated with the diminution of the value of the meat and the 
production of the feeling of disgust in the general public (Decision 
IV, of November 2, 1886). This was a case of the sale of a cow 
which had been slaughtered while diseased. The internal organs 
and interior surface of the ribs, but not the meat, were found 
to be full of tubercles. It was sold as wholesome, non-spoiled 
meat, after the removal of the "disgusting ulcers". 

A decision of the Imperial Court of October 5, 1889, held that 
the positive factor in determining the spoiled condition consists in 
an alteration of the original or normal condition of the food or 
condiment to an inferior and consequently less fit condition for 
utilization for a certain purpose. 

Finally, it should be remembered that only an actual violation 
of Sec. 10 is punishable. The attempt at violation is not punish- 
able. Furthermore, the utilization of spoiled meat in one's own 
household and its donation to others is not subject to legal 
restrictions. 

Section IS. 

Imprisonment, together with the possible loss of civil rights, is provided for (1) 
all persons who purposely prepare articles which are intended to serve as food or 
condiment for others in such a manner that they maj be injurious to human health,, 
and all persons who knowingly sell, offer for sale, or otherwise traffic in as food or 
condiment, articles the consumption of which would be injurious to human health ; 
(2) all persons who purposely prepare clothing materials, playthings, tapestry, 
eating, drinking, and cooking utensils, or petroleum in such a manner that the;' 
intended or future use of these articles is likely to be injurious to human health ; and 
also all persons who knowingly sell, offer for sale, or otherwise have traffic in such, 
articles. 

Attempted evasions are punishable. 

If on account of these forbidden actions a serious bodily injury or death of a 
human being is caused, the punishment is confinement in the workhouse for five 
years. 

Section 13. 

If in cases mentioned in Sec. 12 the consumption or use of the article was 
likely to injure human health, and if this fact was known to the vendor, the punish- 
ment is confinement in the workhouse for ten years; and if by the action in question 
the death of a human being is caused, confinement in the workhouse for not less than 
ten years or for life. In addition to the punishment, police supervision must be 
permitted. 

The law of May 14, 1879, makes a fundamental difference 
between spoiled and dangerous or injurious food materials. Every 
«ase of the sale of injurious food materials, or even the attempt t& 



108 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

sell them, is punishable. If carelessness is not shown and at the 
same time harm is clone to human health (Sec. 14), the punishment 
consists of imprisonment at least, but may involve confinement in 
the workhouse in the case of the death of a human being. The 
penalty for the violation of Sec. 12 can not be paid by a money fiue. 
In legal cases the wording of Sec. 12 must be observed, for, 
according to this section, it is not necessary for fulfilling the 
requirements of Sec. 12 that the food material should always 
produce an injurious effect. It is sufficient that the consumption of 
the food material should be, as a rule, calculated to injure human 
health (compare p. 110). On the other hand, according to a 
decision of Criminal Senate No. 2 of the Imperial Court, May 5, 
1882, "the dangerousness is an objective quality which must 
attach to the article." Furthermore, the dangerousness must be 
present at the moment of sale or offering for sale. The bare 
possibility that meat may rapidly pass into decomposition and may 
thereby become dangerous is not sufficient (Decision II, of May 5, 
1882). Likewise, the actual conditions of Sec. 12 do not exist in 
cases where the dangerousness of the food material was removed at 
the time of sale by the method of preparation, as, for example, 
by cooking (Decision I, of January 8, 1883). Neither is a person 
punishable for selling dangerous meat, not as a food material, but 
for some other purpose (Decision II, of March 11, 1881) ; nor is he 
punishable if, before selling the article which loses its dangerous 
character by cooking (for example, measly meat), he expressly 
declares that it can be eaten only in a cooked condition (Decisions 
IY, of August 11, 1884, and I, of January 15, 1885). The attempt 
to. offer for sale is also punishable according to Sec. 12. 

Decrees of the Imperial Court as a Commentary on Sees. 12 and 18. 

A public sale, offering for sale, or bringing into traffic is not 
required ; bringing into traffic signifies making the article acces- 
sible as food for another person. The sale of meat to middlemen, 
therefore, and the gratuitous disposal of the meat are also to be 
considered as bringing into traffic in the sense of Sec. 12 (Decisions 
I, of December 13, 1880, and III, of February 10, 1887) ; similarly, 
for the utilization of the material in one's private household, or 
giving it to wife, children, servants, associates, etc. (Decision II., of 
October 27, 1882). 

Intentional bringing into traffic of injurious food materials 
presupposes : (1) that the dangerous character of the material is 
known to the vendor, and (2) that he understands that the person 



FOOD INSPECTION LAW 109 

to whom the injurious article is given will eat it himself or give 
it to others as a food material (Decision IV, of March 21, 1888). 

An attempt to offer for sale was found in a case in which a 
butcher obtained injurious meat with full knowledge of its quality, 
brought it to his store, and there had it rinsed with water in order 
to remove the disagreeable odor (Decision III, of February 15, 
1882). An attempt at sale was also found in another case, in 
consequence of preparing the meat for sale (cutting it into small 
pieces) (Decision I, of November 1, 1881), in sending the cut meat 
to another butcher shop (Decision II, of May 2, 1884) ; in trans- 
porting meat which was cut up and given gratis by a country 
butcher to a city inspection office (Decision of May 26, 1898) ; and, 
finally, in a case in which a beginning had been made in the use of 
the meat in material which had already been ordered (Decision II, 
of May 6, 1890). The mere possession of injurious wares is, on the 
other hand, no attempt to offer for sale (Decision III, of November 
10, 1884). Laying the injurious meat out for the purpose of selling 
it is offering it for sale in the sense of Sec. 12 of the food law 
(Decision II., of December 23, 1887). 

The attempt to sell presupposes that a beginning has been 
made in performing at least one of the actions which belong to the 
fact of an intended sale. The attempt to offer for sale exists if a 
beginning has been made in preparing the wares for sale to the 
public (Decision of June 5, 1890). An actual bringing into traffic 
can not be found in the transportation of food material, in and of 
itself, to a selling point (Decision of November 1, 1888). 

Further Findings of the Imperial Court with Reference to 
Sections 12 and 13. 

If a purchaser returns injurious food material to the vendor, 
the former may, according to Sec. 12, paragraph 1, of the food law, 
become guilty of a punishable bringing into traffic (Decision of 
September 27, 1887). Schmidt-Mulheim remarked in this connec- 
tion that the consumer would do well, after he had become convinced 
of the injurious character of the meat he has bought, to destroy it 
or to call for the assistance of the sanitary police. The permission 
for the removal of a dangerous article for the purpose of utilization 
as food material (the case was one of trichinous meat which required 
boiling in a kettle) may also be considered as bringing into traffic in 
the sense of Sec. 12 of the food law (Decision of June 7, 1887). 

Sec. 12 of the law of May 14, 1879, does not require that the 
consumption of the article in question (in this case it was measly 



110 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

meat) shall in every case and under all conditions injure human 
health ; or that for fulfilling the condition of fact an injury to health 
shall already have occurred. It is sufficient that the injury to 
health may occur under ordinary conditions and that, as a rule, it 
will occur (Decision IV, of September 29, 1885). 

Injury to health takes place when by the action of a food 
material upon the body of the human being the organism|Suffers at 
3 east a partial disturbance of the ordinary vital functions. The 
health may also be injured by the aggravation of a disease (Decision 
III, of February 6, 1890). 

The production of illness without an actual outbreak of disease 
is an injury to health in the sense of the food law. The imperial 
Court has handed down an opinion that not everything which is 
disgusting must necessarily be regarded as injurious to health. It 
was held, however, that it is legally unthinkable that a pathogenic 
influence upon the health could be found in a corporeal condition 
which in ordinary life is characterized as illness and which consists 
in an anomalous tendency toward the outbreak of disease. It 
follows therefrom that when a food material, according to its objec- 
tive character is calculated to produce illness and disease in the 
person who eats it, it may also be considered as calculated to injure 
health (Decision IV, of December 8, 1893). 

An injury to health is to be carefully distinguished from a 
disturbance of the health. According to Meyer and Finkelnburg, 
the technical criterion of an injury to health is to be found in the 
fact that it is transitory, without serious or permanent disturbance 
of the bodily or mental functions, while we may ascribe the pro- 
perty of disturbing health to an article when the consumption of it 
may lead to death or to such other consequences as are mentioned 
in Sec. 224 of the Criminal Law Statutes, which characterizes 
certain cases of bodily injury as " serious" when the injured person 
loses an important member of the body, sight in one or both eyes, 
hearing, speech, or reproductive power, or when these members or 
functions are permanently injured to a serious extent; or in cases 
where long illness, paralysis, or mental disease results. 

Under the term lingering illness is understood any chronic 
disease which by attacking the organism produces a serious effect 
upon the general condition, even if the possibility of recovery exists 
(Decision II, of April 9, 1885). 

The express declaration of the vendor that meat which loses its 
injurious character in cooking can be eaten only in a cooked con- 
dition protects him from punishment (Decision IV, of July 11, 1884). 



FOOD INSPECTION LAW 111 

The mere statement of the injurious character by the vendor to 
ihe purchaser does not entirely free the former from punishment, 
for the dangerousness of the transaction is not thereby removed 
(Decisions of January 15 and September 29, 1885). Disposing of 
food materials the injurious character of which may be removed by 
special treatment is non-punishable only in cases in which the 
vendor has made the necessary provisions for preventing its use in 
a dangerous condition (Decision IV, of March 21, 1888). 

The subjective incrimination of the vendor according to Sec. 12 
of the food law also disappears if he is convinced that the purchaser 
will remove the dangerous quality of the food material by suitable 
processes before it is eaten (Decision IV, of September 29, 1885). 

Section 14. 

If any one of the actions characterized in Sees. 12 or 13 are performed through 
carelessness, the punishment is a fine not exceeding 1,000 marks or imprisonment not 
exceeding six months; and if through the action in question an injury is caused to 
the health of a human being, the punishment is imprisonment for one year, or, if the 
•death of a human being was caused, imprisonment for from one month to three years. 

Meyer and Finkelnburg state that carelessness in the majority 
of instances is to be found in case the property of endangering or 
disturbing health was not known to the defendant and in case this 
was due to not giving it the attention which was required of him by 
the facts in the case. The degree of attention which must be given 
in this regard is considered purely a question of fact. 

The Imperial Court (Decision III, of February 15, 1882) handed 
down the opinion that to establish carelessness it was immaterial 
whether a transaction was ordered by law or by regulation. The 
, decision in question concerned the omission of trichina inspection 
in a locality in which trichina inspection had not been introduced 
by police ordinance. 

It is the duty of the butcher to convince himself before selling 
the meat that it is not of a dangerous character (Decision IV, of 
June 1, 1886). The case was one of trafficking in measly meat. 
The Imperial Court rightly decided that the defendant had acted in 
a careless manner, inasmuch as he had neglected to exercise the 
necessary care and attention in the sale of the meat. It was held 
that if he had exercised care, even to the slightest extent, the 
injurious character of the meat could not have escaped his attention. 

In conclusion, it should be remembered that living animals are 

, also reckoned among food materials and condiments in the sense 

of Sec. 12 of the law of May 14, 1879, if the vendor knows that the 



112 KEGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

animals are to be used as human food (Decision III, of December 
2, 1886, and Decision I, of October 6, 1892). This decision is 
applicable to cases of animals manifestly affected with an infectious 
disease (for example, tuberculous animals, hogs with tongue 
bladder- worms, etc.) 

Decision III, of April 16, 1888, stated furthermore that the sale 
of atdiseased animal with knowledge of the fact that it was to be 
killed immediately and eaten by human beings was punishable 
according to Sees. 10 and 11 of the law of May 14, 1879, if it was 
established that the meat of the animal at the time of sale and at 
the slaughter which followed immediately after, was spoiled in the 
sense of the law of May 14, 1879. 

(c) Scientific Definition of the Term "Injurious to Health.'* 
(Section 12 of the Food Law.) 

From a legal standpoint, meat must be considered as injurious 
to health if it has been shown that it has already injured the health 
of consumers or if there is a scientific basis for the suspicion that 
such may be the result. Such meat, according to the text and 
intent of Sec. 12 of the food law, is " calculated to injure human 
health." In practice, however, the term " injurious to health '* 
must be given a broader interpretation. According to the prin- 
ciples which determine the action of the sanitary police, in case of 
doubt it is necessary to make the more unfavorable assumption 
and to consider that meat is injurious to health if its harmless 
character is not established. Samples of meat known by experience 
to be injurious to health, are meat of animals suffering from septic 
and pyemic diseases (meat poisoning), meat containing trichina 
and cysticerci, meat of animals affected with anthrax and glanders, 
as well as decaying and otherwise decomposed meat (sausage and 
mince-meat poisoning). Samples of meat which, on the basis 
of scientific demonstration, must be regarded as injurious to 
health, are tuberculous organs and the meat of animals which 
are affected with certain forms of tuberculosis. 

Concerning the connection between injury to health and the 
consumption of the meat of diseased animals, the materials worked 
over in the Imperial Health Office for the technical foundation of 
the draft of the food law contain the following considerations : 

Conclusive proof that certain diseases in man are caused 
by the consumption of the meat of animals slaughtered while in a 
certain diseased condition is often very difficult to procure. On the 



FOOD INSPECTION LAW 113 

one hand, the diseases do not appear immediately after eating the 
meat. At times, in fact, they may appear only after the lapse of a 
considerable time after the persons concerned have eaten the meat 
of various other animals. Moreovei*, meat dealers, especially the 
so-called " cold butchers," understand, as a rule, how to arrange the 
slaughtering of diseased animals and the sale of the meat so that 
the causal connection between possible diseases in man and the 
slaughter of diseased animals performed by the butchers is 
obscured as much as possible. This purpose is well served by the 
method of secretly transporting the affected animals to a distant 
locality and slaughtering them there as quickly as possible, or by 
bringing the meat of diseased animals which were slaughtered 
in one place to another distant locality, commonly to a larger city. 
Not infrequently the diseased meat is first disposed of to middle- 
men, or it is sold with the meat of other animals slaughtered in a 
demonstrably healthy condition and under the pretence of coming 
from the latter. Frequently, diseased meat is utilized in the 
manufacture of sausages in order to prevent the discovery that it is 
pathologically altered. The frequency of this experience is ap- 
parent from the fact that meat dealers who slaughter diseased meat 
in a wholesale manner are in many regions called sausage butchers. 

With regard to the method of determining the injurious 
character of food materials, we are subject to a serious limitation. 
Only in a few instances are we in a position by exact, unexception- 
able experiments on man to answer the question whether the meat 
possesses harmful properties or not. Previously, experiments of.' 
this sort with measly meat and with the milk of aphthous animals 
have been made by self-sacrificing investigators (Perroncito and 
Hertwig), on themselves and partly on criminals condemned to 
death (Kuchenmeister's experiments with measly pork). Quite, 
heroic experiments were made by the General Veterinarian of the, 
French army, Decroix, upon himself with the meat of animals which 
had been affected with various diseases and part of which had died 
in consequence. Decroix ventured to eat the meat even from cases 
of acute glanders, rabies, trichinosis, pyemia, and perforated peri- 
tonitis, and, fortunately, did not suffer any injury to his health.* 

In the majority of cases we are limited to experiments upon 
animals and to ordinary experience. Experiments upon animals 
serve only to give a basis to the suspicion that the conditions are 
similar in man to those in the experimental animals, and this has 

* Decroix, ' ' Recherches Experimentales sur la Viande de Cheval et sur les 
Viandes insalubres." Paris, 1885. 



114 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

reference only to such diseases of domesticated animals as are 
generally known to occur in man (for example, tuberculosis, 
glanders and anthrax). The transmissibility of a disease of a 
domesticated animal to an experimental animal proves nothing in 
itself regarding the possibility of transmission to man, for there are 
many diseases of domesticated animals which are transmissible to 
experimental animals but which, according to experience, are not 
transmissible to man ; as, for example, hemorrhagic septicemia, 
black leg, swine erysipelas, etc. In applying to man the results 
which are obtained with animals, the manner of transferring the 
virus must also be considered. Intraperitoneal or subcutaneous 
inoculation is no proof of injurious action in the case of introduction 
into the alimentary tract. In the latter case the harmful effect of 
the digestive juices upon the bacteria and also the unfavorable 
conditions for anaerobic bacteria in the stomach and alimentary 
tract enter into the problem. Anthrax bacilli, for example, in the 
majority of warm-blooded animals, produce anthrax after a sub- 
cutaneous injection, while after feeding, on the contrary, infection 
does not take place in a number of animals including man. With 
regard to tuberculous sputum, Bollinger demonstrated that it would 
produce an infection in case of subcutaneous or intraperitoneal 
injection when diluted to the extent of 1:100,000, while it lost its 
virulence in case of administration through the alimentary tract 
even in a dilution of 1:8. Nocard injected the muscle serum of 21 
■cows into guinea pigs. In these experiments it was shown that the 
muscle serum of a cow was virulent. The meat of the same cow, 
however, was eaten in considerable quantities (about 500 grams) by 
four cats without any injurious effects. Finally, Sormani demon- 
strated that a 10,000 times greater quantity of tetanus virus was 
endured in the alimentary canal than in the subcutaneous connec- 
tive tissue. 

With regard to the majority of the diseases of domesticated 
animals, we know by experience that they are not communicable to 
man. This fact of experience is both of a negative and of a positive 
character ; negative in so far as it has been shown by clinical 
observation and numerous post mortem examinations of man that 
diseases which are common in domesticated animals do not occur 
in man ; of a positive nature, on the other hand, in so far as the 
meat of diseased animals has been eaten in innumerable cases 
without harm. For example, this has. been proved by hundreds 
and thousands of experiences with. the meat of animals which were 
affected with rinderpest, pleuro- pneumonia, or swine erysipelas. 



POOD INSPECTION LAW ,115 

Feeding experiments with the meat of such animals have been on a 
very large scale in man, and it requires no further proof that, as 
against this tremendous mass of experience, one isolated contra- 
dictory observation has no weight, especially if the latter can not 
be considered entirely unexceptionable. I emphasize this point with 
regard to the isolated observations contained in the literature of the 
subject concerning the alleged injurious character of meat contain- 
ing psorosperms, the meat of hogs affected with swine plague, of 
cattle suffering from rinderpest, and of chickens affected with fowl 
cholera, observations which thus far have not been substantiated 
by other authors and which are much more easily explained by the 
assumption of the development of a cadaveric injurious property. 

■(d) Differentiation of Meat and of Meat Peoducts, According 
to the Regulations of the Food Law. 

According to the law of May 14, 1879, we must distinguish in 
the practice of meat inspection, and pro foro, the following classes : 

1. Good products, or those which are fit to eat and which may 
be freely admitted to the market. 

2. Meat which is to be considered "spoiled in the sense of 
the food law." * This meat corresponds to the inferior meat of the 
meat inspection law ("meat which is really fit for consumption by 
man but which is considerably depreciated in its nutritive and 
condimental value"). Such meat can be offered for sale and sold 
only under declaration and upon the freibank. 

The Imperial Prussian Administrative Court declared (Decision 
I, of February 20, 1900) that a police ordinance according to which 
" spoiled " or inferior meat was ordered upon the freibank was 
binding. It was held that the police had the right to take action 
against the criminal sale or offering for sale of " spoiled " or inferior 
meat and that the transfer of this meat to the freibank protected 
the producer against violation of the criminal law. 

Other methods of bringing into traffic (use in one's own house- 
hold and the giving gratis to others) are not subject to legal 
restrictions. In the older ordinances, spoiled meat was charac- 
terized as non-marketable. 

3. Unconditionally dangerous or injurious meat, in the case of 
which any method of trafficking in as human food material, its use 
in one's own household, giving gratis to others, permission for its 

* In the following discussion, for the sake of brevity, this will be referred to 
simply as spoiled. 



116 REGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

removal, etc., is forbidden (see pages 108, 109). With this meat, 
which constitutes a part of the meat unfit for food in the sense of 
the meat inspection law, procedure should take place according to 
Sec. 9 of the meat inspection law. 

4. Conditionally injurious meat which can be made fit for food 
by proper measures, such as cooking, roasting, steaming, pickling, 
or preservation in cold storage. 

The conditionally injurious meat forms a part of the meat 
which is conditionally fit for food in the sense of the meat inspec- 
tion law. The other part of the meat which is conditionally fit for 
food is that which for veterinary police reasons must be rendered 
utilizable before it is admitted to the market (compare page 83). 
Such meat after the required conditions have been fulfilled is to be 
treated as spoiled meat in the sense of the food law and to be 
admitted to market only after declaration (Sec. 11 of the meat 
inspection law). 

5. Finally, we have to distinguish meat which is spoiled in a 
high degree and which, without being injurious to health, has lost 
the quality of human food material on account of extensive, substan- 
tial deterioration ; for example, watery and ill-smelling meat, meat 
and organs which are extensively infested with harmless or dead 
parasites, etc.). This meat is unfit for food in the sense of the meat 
inspection law and is subject to the regulations of Sec. 9 of the 
meat inspection law in the same manner as that mentioned above 
under paragraph 3. 

Among meat products we distinguish, moreover, imitations and 
adulterations. 

It should be remembered that the expert meat inspector should 
use the word "spoiled" only in the sense of the law and not as 
indicating meat in process of decomposition ; for decomposing meat 
is an injurious food material. 

The meaning of "unclean" meat. Attention has already been 
called (page 40) to the fact that in one part of the Kingdom of 
Prussia privileged knackers, according to the decree of April 29, 
1772, received the rejected animals which were found unclean at 
the time of slaughter, in their immediate neighborhood (sheep 
excepted). The concept "rejected " was explained by a ministerial 
decree of May 11, 1887, to the Kurmark Chamber of War and 
Public Domains with the statement that by this term was to be 
understood " all animals which are unfit for further use by man ". 
An official interpretation of the meaning of "unclean" does not 
exist. The term in question is a relic of the oldest German 



^^..CELISIXG ANIMAL PLAGUES 117 

ordinances concerning meat inspection, in which it was incorporated 
through the medium of the Christian Church from the food laws of 
the Jews and Egyptians. Dieckerhoff suggests, as an explanation of 
this historical term, that it is to be understood as including injurious 
meat, an explanation which agrees closely with legal decisions.' 
Thus, the Official Court at Eberwalde, in an opinion handed down 
August 11, 1890, declared that for the determination of the concept 
"unclean" the same characterization must be considered decisive 
as is mentioned in the ministerial decree of May 11, 1787, with 
regard to the term rejected. It was held that animals are to be 
-considered as unclean if the meat can not be eaten, on account of 
its diseased condition, or if it should not be eaten, on account of 
being dangerous to health. 

In this sense the term unclean may be applied also to tuber- 
culosis of cattle, in spite of the fact that by the decree of July 26, 
1785, it was declared with reference to the ''French disease," that 
butchers would no longer, under any circumstances, be permitted 
to declare slaughtered animals as unclean and infected with this 
disease, for this decree is not a general regulation, but an instruc- 
tion based upon the opinion of the chief sanitary officer, and one 
which, therefore, may lose its foundation by the alteration of the 
views of the sanitary veterinarians on this point (decision of the 
Government Court at Stolp, February 22, 1892). 

■3.— Imperial Law Concerning the Prevention and Suppression 
of Animal Plagues of June 23, 1880, and May 1, 1894. 

According to Sec. 17 of this law, public abattoirs are subject to 
the inspection of official veterinarians, and the same measures may 
l>e adopted with reference to private slaughterhouses. Section 17 
reads, " all stock and horse markets, as well as all public abattoirs, 
shall be inspected by official veterinarians. These regulations may 
also be extended so as to apply to herds of stock brought together 
in public or private quarters for the purpose of public sale, male 
animals used for breeding purposes in a public manner, public 
stock shows and collections of horses and herds of stock brought 
together by regulation of the authorities, as well as feeding stalls, 
private slaughterhouses, and the stalls of stock dealers. The 
veterinarian is required to make known immediately to the police 
authority all cases of infectious plagues or all symptoms which 
arouse suspicion of disease which are observed in the market or 
among the above mentioned herds of horses and cattle. He shall 



118 EEGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

make an immediate investigation of the case and enforce the 
required police protective regulations. If there is danger of the 
spreading of the disease, the veterinarian is authorized, before 
police interference, to order the isolation and observation of the 
diseased and suspected animals." 

For the execution of Sec. 17 of the Imperial law concerning 
animal plagues, the following orders of the Imperial Government 
President at Merseburg are worthy of notice as model regulations : 

I. — Police Regulation Concerning the Supervision of Private Slaughter 
Houses, etc, February 29, 1896. 

On the basis of Sec. 17 of the Imperial law concerning animal plagues, according 
to an interpretation of May 1, 1894, and also on the basis of See. 7 of the Prussian 
enacting clause of March 12, 1881, I prescribe the following regulations for the 
territory of the government district of Merseburg : 

Sec, 1. Herds of animals brought together by dealers in public or private places 
for the purpose of public sale, public animal shows, private slaughterhouses, together 
with the apartments which belong to them, as well as the stalls of cattle dealers, 
whether used for private purposes or rented, are to be inspected by the local official 
veterinarians. 

Sec. 2. The term "herds of animals," in the sense of this regulation, is to be 
understood as including horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, irrespective of number or age. 

Sec. 3. Access to the places characterized in Sec. 1 is to be at all times per- 
mitted to official veterinarians for the purpose of making inspections. 

Sec. 4. The costs of this supervision, according to Sec. 7 of the Prussian decree 
of enforcement of June 18, 1894, and Sec. 24 of the above mentioned enacting clause, 
must be borne by the dealers, and in case an agreement can not be reached concerning 
them, they will be fixed by me. If the costs are not paid punctually, legal prosecu- 
tion will be begun. 

Sec. 5. This regulation becomes operative on the day of its promulgation. 
From this day the governmental police regulation of August 15, 1895, concerning the 
inspection of slaughterhouses, etc., is repealed. 

II. — State Police Regulation Concerning the Supervision of Public 
Slaughterhouses, February 29, 1896. 

In connection with the state police regulation decreed by me to-day and pro- 
mulgated in the Official Circular concerning the inspection of herds of animals 
brought together for the purpose of public sale, public animal shows, etc., by official 
A^eterinarians, as well as for the purpose of amendment and extension of my circular 
letter of August 15, of the previous year, I hereby decree as follows : 

1. The veterinary police supervision of public slaughterhouses prescribed in 
Sec. 17 of the Imperial law concerning animal plagues in the interpretation of May 1, 
1894, shall be carried out in Halle by the department veterinarian at least once per 
month, and in other localities of this district by the local district veterinarians with 
the frequency which has already been ordered in the above mentioned circular letter. 
Inspection shall be unannounced and thorough. 

2. The district veterinarians shall perform this veterinary police inspection in 
such a manner that they direct their attention entirely to the field of action which 
concerns the veterinary police. Thus they shall have regard to all regulations decreed 



LAW CONCERNING ANIMAL PLAGUES 119 

concerning the prevention and suppression of animal diseases and shall also give 
attention to the detection of animal plagues and the prevention of the dissemination 
of such plagues. ' 

The department veterinarian, on the other hand, shall direct his supervisory 
activity to the organization and the management of the slaughterhouses as a whole, 
to the technical work of the slaughterhouse experts, especially to the manner of the 
inspection of animals before slaughter, the procedure in slaughter, the management 
of meat inspection, including trichina inspection, keeping the books containing* 
records of inspection, the cleansing of slaughtering rooms and other communicating 
rooms, cold storage, lard rendering stalls, platforms for animals, utensils, etc., as- 
well as to the disposition of meat unfit for human food, the treatment and sale of 
inferior meat, and the treatment and removal of manure, etc. 

3. In the same manner the department veterinarian shall make a thorough 
inspection, at least once during each calendar year, of the other public slaughter- 
houses within his district. This may be done incidentally upon his official trips. 

4. In case improper conduct or violations of existing regulations are discovered 
during these inspection tours, the director of the slaughterhouse shall have his atten- 
tion immediately called to the same and an announcement shall be made to the police 
officials or to the proper magistrate. If such abuses are not quickly corrected, or if 
the discoveries and observations are of special importance, a report shall be rendered 
to me without delay. 

5. The directors of slaughterhouses are instructed to further the execution of 
this supervision so far as they are able and upon request to furnish all possible 
information concerning the organization, management, etc., of the slaughterhouses 
subject to their inspection. 

6. The costs of the veterinary police supervision, according to Sec. 7 of the 
Prussian decree of enforcement of June 18, 1894, and Sec. 24 of the Prussian decree 
of enforcement of March 12, 1881, with reference to the above mentioned Imperial 
law concerning animal plagues, shall be borne by the dealers, and, in case no agree- 
ment is reached, shall be determined by me. On the other hand, the expenses of 
other inspections are to be borne by the State Treasurer. In calculating the fees for 
the prescribed services, the provisions of the law of March 9, 1872, concerning the 
fees of medical officials, shall be authoritative. 

Imperial Government President, 
Merseburg, February 29, 1896. Graf zu Stolberg. 

In addition to compulsory notification for all plagues men- 
tioned in the Imperial law concerning animal plagues of May 1, 
1894 (especially anthrax, rabies, glanders, foot-and-mouth disease, 
pleuro-pneumonia, sheep pox, mange of horses and sheep), the 
following provisions concerning the procedure with meat of animals 
suffering from an infectious disease should be considered :* 



* On the basis of Sec. 10, sentence 2, of the Imperial law concerning animal 
plagues, swine erysipelas, swine plague, and hog cholera, as well as fowl cholera, are 
subject to compulsory notification. Moreover, in the Prussian Province of Saxony 
and in the Kingdom of Saxony, this requirement extends to the so-called Borna horse 
disease, and in the Province of East Prussia to horse distemper and pneumonia of 
horses. 



120 EEGULATION OF TRAFFIC IN MEAT 

Sec. .31. "No animals which are affected or suspected of being 
affected with anthrax shall be slaughtered." Sec. 33. " The car- 
casses of dead or slaughtered animals affected or suspected of being 
affected with anthrax must be immediately destroyed. The removal 
of the hide of such animals is forbidden." 

Sec. 36. " The slaughter of rabid animals or those suspected of 
rabies, and all sale or use of individual parts, milk, or other 
products of the same are forbidden." 

Sec. 39. "The carcasses of slaughtered rabid animals or animals 
suspected of rabies must be immediately destroyed. The removal 
of the hide is forbidden." 

Sec. 43. " The carcasses of dead or slaughtered glanderous 
animals must be immediately destroyed. The removal of the hide 
of the same is forbidden." 

Sees. 53 to 56 contain special provisions concerning the pro- 
cedure in the reduction of plagues in stock yards and public 
slaughterhouses : 

Sec. 53. " The aforementioned regulations of this law, with 
such alterations as appear in the following special provisions, are 
applicable to stock yards and public abattoirs which are subject 
to a regular veterinary police control, and to the food animals 
which are brought to such places." 

Sec. 54. " If, among the food animals brought to such places, 
the outbreak of an infectious disease is discovered, or if symptoms 
appear which, according to the opinion of the official veterinarian, 
justify the fear of an outbreak of such a plague, the diseased 
and all suspected animals are to be immediately taken under police 
supervision and prevented from coming into contact with other 
animals." 

Sec. 55. " So far as the nature of the disease permits (compare 
Sees. 31, 36 and 43), the owner, or the representative of the owner, 
of the diseased or suspected food animal may be required to 
slaughter the animal immediately under the supervision of the 
official veterinarian and in the rooms intended for that purpose." 

" This regulation may in urgent cases be extended to include 
all other animals which are susceptible to the disease and which 
are in the place in question." 

Sec. 56. " After the discovery of an outbreak of a plague, and 
as long as there is danger from the plague, the stock yards or 
public slaughterhouses may be closed to prevent the removal 
of animals which are susceptible to the plague. More stringent 
quarantine measures may be applied only in urgent cases." 



LAW CONCERNING ANIMAL PLAGUES 121 

From the instruction of the Federal Council of June 27, 1895, 
with reference to the execution of Sees. 19 to 29 of the Imperial law 
concerning animal plagues, the following paragraphs are of import- 
ance for meat inspection : 

General. — Sec. 2. " To stock yards, public slaughterhouses, and 
food animals brought to such places, subject to a regulated 
veterinary police control, the provisions of these instructions are 
applicable only in so far as they are in harmony with the regula- 
tions of Sees. 53 to 56 of the law (see above). In particular, the 
provisions of these instructions concerning public notification of an 
outbreak of a plague and concerning restrictions in traffic with 
reference to the animals and persons which come in contact with 
them are not applicable to the institutions mentioned above." 

Foot-and-mouth disease. — Sec. 62. " Hides of dead or slaughtered 
diseased animals may be removed from quarantine only in a 
completely dried condition, except in case they are delivered 
directly to the tannery." 

Pleuro-pneumonia. — See. 89. "Lungs of animals slaughtered on 
account of pleuro-pneumonia or dead of this disease must be buried 
at least one meter deep in order to render them harmless. The 
meat of such animals shall not be removed from the premises 
in question until it has been thoroughly frozen. The skins of 
animals dead of pleuro-pneumonia shall not be removed from the 
premises in question or from the slaughterhouse unless in a com- 
pletely dried condition, except in case they are delivered imme- 
diately to the tanner." 

Sheep pox. — Sec. 97 10 . "Skins of dead or slaughtered sheep 
affected with sheep pox shall be removed from quarantine only in 
a completely dried condition, except in case they are delivered 
directly to the tanner." 

Mange. — In case of mange in horses and sheep the skins are 
subject to the same restrictions in traffic as in the case of ifoot- 
and-mouth disease and sheep pox." 

4.— Imperial Law Concerning Measures Against Rinderpest, 

April 1, 1869. 

This law, which originally was operative only for the region of 
the North German Federation, but which in 1870 and 1871 was also 
introduced into Baden, Hessen, Bavaria, Wurtemburg and Alsace- 
Lorraine, prescribes incineration of animals slaughtered on account 
of infection from rinderpest or dead of this disease. 



III. 

THE ART OF BUTCHERING, INCLUDING THE INSPEC- 
TION OF ANIMALS BEFORE SLAUGHTERING. 



1.— Food Animals. 

To the food animals belong, in the first place, cattle, sheep, and 
hogs, then goats and horses ; moreover, in southern and southeastern 
European countries, the buffalo is slaughtered, and, in a portion of 
the Scandinavian countries, the reindeer.* Lately dogs have also 
been slaughtered for use as human food (Italy and Saxony). 

Of the domestic food animals just mentioned, the hog, at least 
so far as Germany is concerned, furnishes the greatest amount of 
meat for human food. With us pork is the most important food 
material of the people, and this is the case for the reason that ifc 
may be prepared without the addition of any other fat, and can be 
preserved, by pickling and smoking, to a greater extent than any 
other kind of meat, without losing its food value. The annual 
consumption of meat in the year 1896-7 in Madgeburg amounted to 
60.52 kg. per capita. This amount was distributed as follows : 29 kg. 
of pork, 25 kg. of beef, 3.8 kg. of veal, 2.5 kg. of mutton, and 1.4 kg^ 
of horse meat. 

In Konigsberg, in Prussia, the excess of pork in the year 1895-6 
was still greater. Of the 40.66 kg. of meat consumed per capita 
during that year, 23.32 kg. was pork, 11.65 beef, 2.85 veal, 2.20' 
mutton, and 0.65 horse meat. 

Similar conditions prevail throughout the German Empire 
(compare page 4). In southern Germany, beef in former years 
occupied the first place as an animal food material. During the 
last ten years, however, the consumption of pork has increased 
considerably, while the amount of beef eaten has simultaneously 
decreased. As a mere curiosity, it may be mentioned that in 

* In Irleraarken, in eastern Norway, a company is engaged in breeding reindeer 
lor slaughter. The company expects to be able to slaughter 1,000 reindeer a year,, 
the meat of which is to be exported. 

122 



TOOD ANIMALS 123 

southern France, Italy, and Spain regulations exist, according to 
which the slaughtering of hogs is forbidden during the summer 
months. The reason for this prohibition is found in the wide-spread 
assumption among the common people that pork is unwholesome 
during the hot season. Apparently we have here a case of a 
blindly- accepted tradition, the beginning of which is to be referred 
to the prohibition of the use of pork in Oriental food laws. 

Hippophagy. — The broken bones of horses in all the historical 
caves of Europe leave no doubt, according to William Boyd Dawkins, 
that horse meat was in use as a food material in ancient times. The 
Christian Church issued a prohibitive decree against it for the 
reason that horse meat was sacrificed and eaten by the Germans in 
honor of Odin and Freya. The present prejudice against the con- 
sumption of horse meat is a remarkable example of. the change of 
taste brought about by a church order against a belief which has 
been forgotten. Among the nomadic people, for example, the 
Tartars, Kirghis, and Kalmucks, hippophagy has continued to the 
present day without interruption. Likewise in China the consump- 
tion of horse meat is an old custom. For many centuries in that 
country a special " fat horse " has been bred for this particular 
purpose, a breed which is characterized by delicate bone structure, 
savory meat, and great fattening powers. 

The first of the civilized peoples to return to the consumption 
of horse meat were the Danes. The Danish government, during the 
siege of Copenhagen, in 1807, permitted the sale of horse meat, and 
from Denmark hippophagy gradually spread to its present extent. 
In Germany during the years of high prices, 1816-17, much horse 
meat was eaten. Horses, however, were for the most part 
slaughtered surreptitiously. It was the hard times of 1847 that 
induced Prof. Spinola, then connected with the Berlin Veterinary 
School, and Blume, the Court opera singer, to establish a slaughter- 
house for horses in Berlin. As a result, after a year's time, eleven 
such establishments had been erected in Berlin, in which a total 
number of 3,000 horses were slaughtered. Morot presents figures to 
show that the consumption of horse meat during the last thirty 
years has considerably increased in nearly all countries. In France 
there exists a " Comite de la viande de Cheval," which deserves 
great credit for the extension of the consumption of horse meat. 
The first slaughterhouse for horses was opened in Paris under the 
management of the army veterinarian, Decroix, July 9, 1866. During 
the following half-year 902 horses were slaughtered. The number 



124: THE AKT OF BUTCHERING 

of horses slaughtered increased, however, in 1869 to 2,753 ; in 1872 
to 5,732 ; and reached, in 1887, the large number of 16,446. During 
the siege and regime of the Commune. in Paris, not less than 65,000 
horses were eaten. Morot emphatically recommends a further 
extension of hippophagy and lays stress upon the fact that thereby 
an immense sum which at present is partly expended for American 
beef would remain in the country. In 1894, 23,186 horses, 383 
asses, and 33 mules were slaughtered, which together yielded 
5,129,530 kg. of meat. More than 100,000 of the 600,000 to 700,000 
families in Paris eat horse meat, "la bidoche " (from bidet, a mare), 
as it is technically called. Moreover, horse meat in Paris, as with 
us, has more secret buyers than open admirers. At any rate, Villain 
says that two-thirds of all the solipeds slaughtered are utilized in 
the manufacture of sausage. 

The number of horses which were slaughtered in public 
abattoirs and in the several horse abattoirs of Prussia in the year 
1899 amounted to 63,801. The number of horse abattoirs was 365 
and the great number of horses, 10,037, were slaughtered in Berlin. 
More than 5,000 were slaughtered in the governmental districts, 
Breslau and Diisseldorf ; more than 3,0Q0 in the governmental 
districts, Liegnitz, Mngdeburg, Merseburg, Schleswig, and Arnsberg, 
or in the more thickly populated districts ; while in the less thickly 
populated eastern provinces only a few horses were utilized as food 
by the people. A strikingly small number of horses were slaughtered 
in the governmental districts of Posen and Bromberg.* In 1890-91, 
the number of horses slaughtered in Prussia was 53,281 ; in 1893-4, 
58,306. In the Kingdom of Saxony in 1885, . 3,313 horses were 
slaughtered ; in 1890, 4,249 ; in 1896, 5,091 ; and in 1899, 5,187. In 
Leipsic the number of horses slaughtered in 1895 was 961 and in 
1900, 1,839, In Dresden during the year 1899, 1,478 horses were 
slaughtered ; in Munich the consumption of horses was doubled 
during the 80's. Nevertheless, the number of horses slaughtered in 
1890 was only 1,728. In Vienna, during 1892, 18.209 horses were 
slaughtered. 

During the exclusive consumption of horse meat, as shown by 
the recent experience of beleaguered cities in China and the Trans- 
vaal, cases of diarrhea may appear. This was observed also in 
consequence of eating dogs. According to Pfliiger, a substance 
soluble in alcohol is contained in horse meat and passes over into 
the meat broth. This substance may produce diarrhea. It consists 

*This is due to the unconquerable antipathy of the Polish population against 
the consumption of horse meat. 



FOOD ANIMALS 125 

of three-fourths lecithin and one-fourth neutral fat and cholesterin.. 
The injurious effect of horse meat is not produced if it is prepared 
with beef or mutton tallow or if the meat broth is poured off. 

The slaughter of dogs appears, according to an official document 
of a magistrate in Munich, to have become so extensive that the 
authorities wish to establish measures which will regulate the traffic 
in dog meat and protect the owners of dogs from the thieving 
tendencies of commercial dog butchers. A portion of the dogs 
which were slaughtered were shown to have been stolen. It is 
believed that dog meat is not only used for the adulteration of 
sausage, but is also eaten as a delicacy by the thousands of Italian 
workmen in Munich. 

Dogs are regularly slaughtered in certain abattoirs in Saxony. 
Thus, in 1889, 233 dogs were slaughtered in Chemnitz, 102 in 
Leipsic and Zittau; while in 1890, 312 were slaughtered in 
Chemnitz and 103 in Leipsic. In the latter city the number of 
dogs has considerably increased and in 1900 amounted to only 
15. In the whole Kingdom of Saxony in 1899 there were 468 dogs 
slaughtered. 

According to Villain, the dog is a highly esteemed food animal 
among the Chinese as well as among the Tartars and the inhabitants 
of Kamchatka. In Senegal also and in the Society Islands, dog meat 
is readily consumed and is even preferred to pork. For a long time 
experiments have been made in Germany to introduce the consump- 
tion of rabbit meat, which in England, France and Italy furnishes a 
favorite article of food. These efforts, however, have been without 
result. According to Boutel, the daily consumption of rabbits in 
Paris amounts to 10,000 and in London to 75,000. In France as a 
whole, 100,000,000 rabbits are raised annually and have a value of 
300,000,000 francs. The rabbit is the most productive of the 
domestic animals. For example, one female weighing 4§ kg. may, 
in the course of a year, produce 50 young, which at the age of four 
months furnish 150 kg. of meat. 

In addition to the mammals already mentioned, fowls also 
belong to domestic food animals. There is no system of meat 
inspection for fowls or for rabbits slaughtered for home consump- 
tion. In the case of fowls and rabbits there is simply a supervision 
of the offering for sale and sale, a control of the market, like that 
exercised in the case of game, fish, crustaceans and mollusks 
intended for human food. (Compare Drechsler, " Selection, Pur- 
chase and Judgment of our Animal Food, Together with Food 
Materials of Animal Origin." Munich, 1897.) 



126 THE ART OF BUTCHERING 

The last named animals, rabbits, fowls, game, fish, Crustacea 
and mollusks, will be considered only so far as they show an 
anomalous condition. Moreover, in judging of the meat of domestic 
fowl and game, the same principles should apply as for the more 
important domestic food animals, cattle, sheep, hogs and horses. 
With regard to goats, the same statement, in general, may be made 
as for sheep. 

2.— Inspection of Animals Before Slaughter. 

Purpose. — The inspection of animals before slaughter may be 
omitted only in cases in which there is danger of natural death by 
postponing the slaughter (in urgent cases of emergency slaughter).* 
In all other cases inspection must be made, and for the following 
reasons : 

1. For the purpose of the immediate detection and isolation of 
animals suffering from an infectious disease.t 

2. In order to prevent the infection of the employees of 
slaughterhouses with diseases which are communicable to man; 
for example, glanders, anthrax and rabies. 

3. For the purpose of the certain detection of intoxications 
and septic diseases, in which the internal organs and meat may 
show only slight alterations. 

Finally, in localities where a system of insurance of food 
animals exists, the inspection of animals before slaughter is made 
in the interest of this insurance, since thereby animals which are 
evidently or presumably diseased are excluded from insurance. 

Practice. — In this place we may omit a description of the 
pathological symptoms to which attention should be given in the 
inspection of living food animals, for the reason that these must be 
perfectly familiar to every veterinary expert. Only the following 
points need be emphasized : 

The transportation of animals may produce symptoms which 
could be interpreted as the expression of a disease. In this con- 
nection we should mention especially the exhaustion of animals 
which in consequence of continual confinement in stalls are unused 

* In such cases, however, the meat can not be admitted for utilization as a 
human food material unless the conditions found upon slaughter leave no doubt as to 
its harmlessness. (See under "Emergency Slaughter.") 

f For this purpose a so-called police or sanitary slaughterhouse must be estab- 
lished in connection with every abattoir. 



INSPECTION OF ANIMALS BEFORE SLAUGHTER 127 

to all exercise (bulls, milch cows, fat hogs). Refusal of food and 
dulness of the sensorium may occur ; these symptoms, however, 
usually disappear after several hours' rest. Furthermore, we may 
observe, in consequence of long transportation, lameness as a result 
of injuries to the hoof (confusion with foot-and-mouth disease), 
bruises and injuries of the skin, especially in cattle and sheep, and 
consequent hemorrhages and accumulations of air under the skin 
(confusion with anthrax and black leg). 

Transportation and period of rest before slaughter. — It is the 
general practice not to permit the immediate slaughter of animals 
which are exhausted by a long journey, but only after a period 
of rest. The meat inspection regulation in Dessau provides, for 
example, that food animals shall be allowed a resting period before 
slaughter, eight hours in winter after being driven on the hoof, and 
four hours after transportation by rail ; in summer, on the other 
hand, twelve and six hours respectively. 

This provision is in accordance with the fact that exhausted 
animals bleed imperfectly, and the meat consequently shows a 
poorer keeping quality than that of rested animals. The meat 
naturally begins to decompose more rapidly, but, if properly treated 
immediately after slaughter, undergoes a chemical decomposition 
which among butchers goes by the name "smothering." 

Provisions concerning the transportation of food animals by rail. — 
In consequence of the improper loading of food animals in cars, 
quite frequently serious injuries and even death may be occasioned. 
Fat hogs during the summer are most subject to these accidents. 
As is the case in forced driving on the hoof, they may die of 
suffocation in railroad cars if they are loaded too closely in poorly 
ventilated cars. Even cattle may die in crowded cars if the latter 
are so overloaded that animals which fall down during transporta- 
tion are unable to get up. Cattle frequently die during transporta- 
tion from suffocation or in consequence of trampling by animals 
which stand next to them. The Agricultural Union at Braunsberg, 
for the purpose of preventing such accidents during transportation 
by rail, made a request for the introduction of ventilating devices in 
the roofs of cars and in the doors so that a space for one beef 
animal or one medium sized horse of 1.5 square meters, or for 
three calves or two hogs of 100 kg. weight, or for nine young pigs, 
or three sheep, one square meter of floor surface be provided. In 
Russia, special animal transportation cars are used, which are 



128 



THE ART OF BUTCHERING 



provided with arrangements for ventilation, suitable heating, feed 
racks, pipes for introducing water, trap doors for the removal of 
the feces, and suitable quarters for the attendants. 

" Railroad disease " of cattle. — Eoder frequently observed cattle 
which were affected with a peculiar condition characterized by 
cattle dealers as " railroad disease ". After being unloaded the 
animals exhibited a wavering gait and passed into a condition 
which resembled parturient paresis. The pulse was accelerated 
to 100 without an elevation of temperature. Respiration was 
spasmodic ; appetite and rumination were suspended and the attack 
terminated unfavorably. 

Horses must in every individual case be examined for glanders 
(nasal cavity, larynx, general integument, etc.). In other domesti- 
cated animals the inspection in general may be a cursory one and 
may be confined to an observation of the general appearance and 
the more important vegetative and sensory functions. The best 
time for inspecting animals is during feeding. Animals which are 
lying down should be made to get up. Lame animals are to be 
driven back and forth, and animals which are evidently exhausted 
should be again examined after a period of rest. Animals which are 
suspected of being diseased must be subject to inspection lege artis. 

The most important diseases. — The chief interest in the inspection 
before slaughter attaches to the typical infectious diseases, the 

Fig. 1. 




Nasal septum of horse with glanderous ulcers and a cicatrix. 

intoxications and septic diseases of food animals. The infectious 
diseases most frequently observed in stock-yards are glanders in the 
horse, foot-and-mouth disease in cattle and hogs, anthrax in cattle 
and sheep, swine erysipelas and urticaria in hogs. The latter disease 
is the only one in which treatment is indicated (laxatives), and 
slaughter should be postponed until recovery takes place, since the 



INSPECTION OF ANIMALS BEFORE SLAUGHTER 



129 



disease, as a rule, runs a favorable course, but the meat after 
recovery shows only unimportant alterations, as compared with 
those which are present at the crisis of the disease. 

By far the most frequent disease in stock-yards and abattoirs is 
aphtha. With reference to this disease, since it frequently happens, 
especially in the case of hogs, that veterinarians first become well 
acquainted with it in abattoirs, it should be remembered that in 
hogs, as a rule, the hoofs are affected and rarely the mouth, and 
that the first form of the disease is made apparent, when the 



Fig. 2. 



a 




■■■■■■ 

WKk ' 'mm 
IBlllfli 




Aphtha. Tip of beef tongue ; a, aphtha ; b, epithelial erosion after bursting of the, 

aphtha. 

animals are driven out of the stalls, by lameness and by the 
aphthous patches or slightly bleeding surfaces on the hoofs. 

Among septic diseases, especial attention should be given to the 
so-called lameness and dysenterial looseness of the bowels in calves, 
to sepsis in connection with retention of the after-birth and septic 
mastitis in cows, to septic enteritis in cattle in general, and, finally, 
to septic diseases as a result of wounds in all animals. 

Furthermore, it is desirable in inspecting animals which are 
intended for slaughter to give close attention to alterations of the 



130 THE ART OF BUTCHERING 

skin (parasitic eruptions, especially scabies in horses and sheep, 
actinomycotic tumors in horses and cattle), to discharges from the 
nose, rustling sounds in inspiration, disturbances of the brain 
functions, dulness of the sensorium, involuntary movements, and to 
motor disturbances (lameness and paralysis). In this way the 
expert simplifies, to a considerable extent, inspection after slaughter. 
It is then not necessary to make an inspection of the skin of the 
slaughtered animals, which, with the exception of hogs, is more 
difficult in all food animals after death than during life. It is also 
unnecessary to make a special inspection of the nasal cavities, brain 
and motor apparatus in cases of complete integrity of the upper 
respiratory passages and the absence of cerebral motor disturbances. 
The expert inspector saves himself the anatomical investigation of 
the hoofs, bones, and joints, by an inspection of animals before 
slaughter. These parts are to be subjected to a more detailed 
examination after slaughter in cases in which pathological processes 
during life caused a suspicion of alterations in them. 

Before we proceed to discuss the inspection of the internal 
organs and the meat of slaughtered animals, it appears desirable to 
give a brief account of the most important methods of slaughter and 
the order of procedure in practical slaughtering. 



3.— Methods of Slaughter. . 

In slaughtering, death must be brought about quickly and with 
the avoidance of unnecessary pain.* The methods of slaughter in 
common use with us serve also the purpose of securing the greatest 
possible keeping quality for the meat. This purpose is fulfilled by 
opening the large cervical vessels or anterior thoracic vessels of the 
animals and removing as much blood as possible. Blood passes 
very quickly into decomposition. Only one method, the so-called 
English patent method, is operated without bleeding. By this 
method the animals are suffocated (compression of the lungs by 
forcing in air by means of a bellows and a sharp canula inserted into 
the pleural cavity). 

Meat obtained by this method possesses a higher food value in 
consequence of its containing all of the blood, but for the same 
reason has a diminished keeping property and does not exhibit the 

* Sec. 360 13 of the Criminal Law Statute of the German Empire provides a fine 
of 150 marks or imprisonment for any person who publicly or in anger causes severe 
pain to animals, or grossly maltreats them. 



METHODS OF SLAUGHTER 131 

beautiful bright-red appetizing appearance of the meat of completely- 
bled animals. 

Quantity of blood and bleeding. — The total quantity of blood of 
animals amounts on an average to one-thirteenth of the body weight. 
This quantity, however, is not completely removed even by those 
methods of slaughter in which bleeding is most thorough. For all 
of the blood is removed only when the animals are not merely 
allowed to bleed, but when the individual parts of the body are 
deprived of the residual quantity of blood present in them, by the 
use of alkalies. The residual blood remains in the organs and in 
the flesh after ordinary commercial slaughter. This quantity, 
however, is so small that it is difficult on section through the 
organs or the musculature to obtain blood, even in drops, by T 
pressure on the cut surfaces. Only occasionally it is possible to 
press out blood from the smaller veins. In cases of incomplete 
bleeding, such as occurs. after previously mutilating the medulla 
oblongata, this is more easily accomplished. 

With reference to the quantity of blood obtained in slaughtering, 
Heissler found quite considerable variations. Age was without any 
special influence. Male animals, on the other hand, yielded some- 
what more blood than females. Furthermore, a fat condition, 
especially in hogs, was associated with a striking diminution 
in the quantity of blood. In horses the blood amounted to 
from 3.93 to 9 per cent, of the body weight; in cows, from 4.2 
to 5.75 per cent; in calves, from 4.4 to 6.67 per cent.; in sheep, 
from 4.37 to 5.56 per cent; and in hogs, from 1.45 per cent, in 
the case of Hungarian hogs, to 5.75 per cent in a yearling 
boar. In the abattoir at Bremen, the average weights of blood 
were found as follows: In the horse, 25 kg.; in cattle, 17.5; in 
colts, 7 ; in hogs, 3.5 ; in calves, 4.5 ; in sheep, 3 ; and in 
goats, 3 kg. 

The average dressed weight of slaughtered animals was 238.6 
kg. in horses, 254 in cattle, 100 in colts, 60 in calves, 77 in hogs, 21 
in sheep, and 12.5 in goats. 

All animals, with the exception of those which are slaughtered 
according to Jewish rites, are rendered unconscious before the 
blood is drawn. The number of animals slaughtered according to 
Jewish custom is, however, very small. 

In contrast to the meat of animals which have been bled, that 
of animals which have died is characterized by the high blood 
content which appears in the darker coloration of all parts, espe- 



132 THE ART OF BUTCHERING 

cially, however, by the distended veins of the internal organs 
(particularly the liver) and of the subcutis. 

By the term "cold butchering" is understood the subsequent 
sticking of dead animals. This manipulation, in which, in favorable 
cases, the non-coagulated contents of the severed vascular trunks 
are removed, is merely a deceptive operation, calculated to make a 
dead animal appear as if slaughtered in the ordinary manner. 

Incomplete bleeding occurs during agony in case of diseased 
animals, if, in consequence of the weakened cardiac power, the blood 
pressure is already greatly lowered. The organs and meat of such 
animals are more or less rich in blood, according to the degree of 
bleeding. The greatest content of blood is usually found in the liver 
and subcutis. In animals exhausted by transportation bleeding is 
also incomplete. 

The most important methods of slaughter. — The methods of 
slaughter in common use with us maybe classified into three groups : 

1. Simple bleeding by sticking in the thorax or cutting the 
throat. To this group belongs the Jewish method of slaughter. 

2. Bleeding after previous mutilation of the medulla oblongata 
by pithing or by a blow. 

3. Bleeding after previous stunning by means of a blow with a 
club, the so-called killing ax, killing mask, and shooting mask. 

The procedures mentioned under 2 and 3 are frequently com- 
bined in stunning with a killing ax. 

Practice of the Different Methods of Slaughter. 

1. — Simple Bleeding by Sticking in the Chest or Cutting the 

Throat. 

Thoracic bleeding is performed in such a manner that, without 
any preliminary operation, the larger vascular trunks (carotids and 
jugulars) at the entrance of the thorax are opened or severed by 
means of a sharp-pointed knife. Thoracic bleeding finds application 
with calves, sheep, and the larger domesticated animals in which, in 
consequence of certain diseases, an incipient paralysis of the brain 
is present (for example, parturient paresis). 

Cervical bleeding, or schdchten, is the common method of killing 
food animals among the Jews and Mohammedans. For practicing 
this method, the animals must be secured and thrown. This may 
be accomplished by the ordinary methods of throwing or by means 



METHODS OF SLAUGHTER 138 

of windlasses fastened to the walls and ceiling of the room. The 
liead is placed so that it lies upon the horns and nose. Hereupon, 
in ritual schaehten, the neck is cut through to the spinal column by- 
three rapidly-executed strokes with a long, exceedingly-sharp, nick- 
less knife. 

Israelites consider themselves bound by their religious laws to 
slaughter in this manner, or to abstain from the use of meat. A 
governmental prohibition of slaughter by the Jewish method would 
be an attack on the rights of the free practice of religion granted by 
tolerant governments.* 

A blow on the head is declared by the Israelites as not 
permissible, for the reason that " perforation of the membranes of 
the brain" belongs to the eight mutilations which, according to the 
Mischna of the Talmud, render the meat terepha (unfit for food). 
Meat which is fit to eat is called Tcosclier (in order, proper). "Let it 
be blest through me, O God, King of the world, who strengthened 
us in holiness by Thy commands and who hast made schaehten a, 
duty," murmurs the schachter (schochet), while he straps his knife 
before the operation or runs the hands over it to test it. If during 
the operation of cutting the throat the knife receives any nick, 
however small, the "schechita" is not correctly performed. The 
animal is condemned (nebelaJi) and its use as food is not permitted. 
Likewise, it is forbidden to eat the meat of animals which exhibit 
no movement during the process of slaughter or afterwards. 
Animals which lie quiet and can not be made to get up by striking 
with a stick must not be slaughtered, according to the Jews. 



*A rabbinical expert, in consequence of the prosecution of schaehten in the 
governmental district of Danzig, in which this method of slaughter was temporarily- 
prohibited, testified in court that this method of slaughter was a religious observance 
"based upon tradition and Biblical commandment (Moses, Book III and Book V, 
chapter 12, verse 21). In the Mosaic food laws, however, there are no provisions 
concerning schaehten. The first provision concerning the schechita and the 
subsequent inspection (B'dikoh) are found in the Fifth Book of Mischna, Chapters 1 
to 6. The six books of Mischna wore edited on the basis of oral and written 
tradition by Jehuda Ha Nassi. The commentaries to the Mischna, published later 
and collected in the fifth century A. D., together with the Mischna, constitute the 
Talmud. The Mischna declares that "if the organs (lungs, trachea, stomach, heart, 
etc.) are permeated with holes, or have any defect, the use of the animal as food is 
not permitted." The G-amara of the Talmud prescribes, "if tumors or vesicles are 
found in the lungs, filled with air or with pure water, or with a material dry or even 
as hard as a stone, the use of the animal as food is permitted. If, however, there is a 
stinking substance, or a stinking, cloudy fluid therein, the use of the meat of these 
animals is forbidden. Defects and perforative openings render the consumption of 
the meat impermissible under all circumstances." 



134 the art of butchering 

2. — Bleeding after Previous Mutilation of the Medulla 
Oblongata by Pithing or by a Blow. 

Pithing. — In practicing this method, a dagger-like knife is 
violently driven into the space between the occipital bone and the 
atlas, and thereby the medulla oblongata, the seat of the more 
important vital functions, especially the respiratory center and the 
center of the inhibitory nerves of the heart, is destroyed. The same 
result is obtained by breaking the neck, either by means of the 
hand in small animals (rabbits) or with a killing ax in the case 
of larger animals. On account of its more certain effect, the latter 
method is almost exclusively used in London in the case of wild 
range steers imported from America. 

3. — Bleeding after Previous Stunning with a Hammer, Slaughter 
Ax, Slaughter Mask, and Shooting Mask. 

The blow with the hammer is administered with great violence 
upon the middle of the roof of the cranium for the purpose of 
producing not only a concussion of the brain, but also a fracture of 
the cranium. In this, as in the following method, as a result of 
pressure or direct injury, a rapid paralysis of the sensory and motor 
centres of the brain is brought about. Fick, in Wiirzburg, calls 
attention to the fact that it has been shown by extensive experience 
in the case of man that an immediate paralyzing concussion of the 
brain is accompanied with absolute unconsciousness. In place of a 
small hammer, the following special apparatus may be used for 
stunning : 

(a) The killing ax, which consists of a wooden handle and a 
wrought iron striking apparatus fastened at right angles to the 
handle. One half of the latter consists of an iron cylinder about 
10 cm. long and 1 cm. in diameter, the end of which forms a gouge. 
The other half of the striking portion is curved in order to embrace 
the horns of the animal to be stunned. The gouge-like end of the 
striking portion is driven into the middle of the roof of the cranium 
by a strong blow, whereupon the animal falls. In order to prevent 
the animal from getting up again, it is customary to introduce a rod 
into the opening in the cranium and to destroy the brain and 
medulla oblongata. 

(b) The slaughter mask consists of a shield-like iron portion 
with an opening in the middle and with a leather attachment on 
either side. Furthermore, there are three thongs attached to the 



METHODS OF SLAUGHTER 



135 



slaughter mask for fastening it to the head. The opening in the 
shield-shaped iron portion comes to lie upon the middle of the roof 



Fig. 3. 




Slaughtermask as used in the Stuttgart Abattoir, a, mask ; b, striking bolt. 



Fig. 4. 



of the cranium, while the lateral leather portion covers the eyes of 
the animal. As in the case of the 
iron cylinder of the killing ax, 
furnished with a gouge, a striking 
bolt, which is inserted into the 
opening of the iron portion, is 
driven through the roof of the 
cranium by a wooden hammer. 
In the practice of this method 
also, a subsequent destruction of 
the brain, such as occurs in the 
use of the killing ax, is customary, 
(c) The shooting mask (Sieg- 
mund). — In this apparatus, in 
place of the striking bolt, a short 
pistol barrel is used, which is screwed into the opening of the 
shield-like iron portion of the slaughter mask. In the posterior 




Staehl's shooting apparatus. 



136 



THE ART OF BUTCHERING 



part of the pistol barrel, a ball cartridge is placed, and is dis- 
charged by a light blow with a wooden or iron hammer. Subse- 
quent destruction of the brain is not required in using the 
shooting mask. 

An alteration of Siegmund's shooting mask is found in the 
shooting apparatus according to Staehl (system of "noiseless 
shooting "), which is shown in Fig. 4. 



Fig 




Kleinschmidt's spring bolt apparatus for killing hogs (half natural size). 

(d) In using Kleinschmidt's springbolt apparatus for killing 
hogs (Fig. 5), death is produced in a manner similar to that with the 
use of the slaughter mask. A cylindrical iron bolt is driven into the 
roof of the cranium with the blow of a hammer. After the blow has 
been delivered, the bolt is thrown back into its previous position by 
a spring, which does not occur in the case of the slaughter mask. 

Kogler, in Chemnitz, modified Kleinschmidt's springbolt 
apparatus in that he left out the spring and made use of a consider- 
ably shorter cylinder. The cylinder possesses a groove into which a 
small set screw projects. According to Kogler, the spring of 
. Kleinschmidt's apparatus has the disadvantage that its use requires 



METHODS OF SLAUGHTER 



137 



a much, more powerful blow, while the length of the cylinder (19.5 
cm.) renders difficult the firm attachment of the apparatus to the 
head. Kogler' s apparatus is without protection for the bolt and 
without its automatic rebound. Both these features, however, 
according to Kogler, are non-essential. The modified apparatus has 

Fig. 6. 




Section of "Kogler' s slaughter mask, a, groove for the bolt; b, screw for . 
preventing the bolt from springing out. 

given good satisfaction in various abattoirs. Kogler makes use of 
this method of connecting the bolt with the cylinder, such as is used 
in the stunning apparatus for hogs and in slaughter masks for cattle, 

Fig. 7. 







Kurten's hog killer. 

and avoids thereby the possibility of the bolt springing out in tne 
case of a misdirected blow (Fig. 6). 

Kiirten in turn modified Kogler's apparatus in that he divided 
the cylinder carrying the striking bolt into an upper and lower 
portion, which were held apart by a long, strong spring (Fig. 7). 



138 



THE ART OF BUTCHERING 



Fig. 8. 



Hereby, as in the case of Kleinschmidt's springbolt apparatus, the 
bolt is thrown back into its previous position after the blow is 
delivered. 

(e) For Hungarian hogs, as well as for 
calves and sheep, the bolt hammer accord- 
ing to Kleinschmidfc (Fig. 8) is recomm- 
ended on account of the arched roof of 
the cranium. According to a report from 
Karlsruhe, however, the bolt hammer was 
not satisfactory for killing sheep. Better 
results were obtained with an oval ham- 
mer 10 cm. long. 1| cm. broad, flattened 
on both ends, and furnished with a handle 
70 cm. long. 

Finally, it should be noted that the 
firm of Renger in Arnstadt has constructed 
a casting slaughter apparatus for killing 
hogs. This apparatus serves the purpose 
of holding the head more securely for the 
administration of the blow. 




Kleinschmidt's bolt - hammer 
for stunning calves and 
sheep. 



Advantages and Disadvantages of the Different Methods 

of Slaughtering. 

1. Thoracic bleeding and cutting the throat bring about a 
complete bleeding and thereby produce a beautiful appearance of 
the meat, which is associated with good keeping qualities. The 
blood flows out so completely since the central nervous organs are 
intact, and consequently the blood pressure is not lowered at the 
beginning. The discharge of the blood, however, toward the end of 
the bleeding is greatly favored by the reflex muscular contractions 
(bleeding or anemic spasms). 

Dembo killed one rabbit by the Jewish method of slaughter and 
two others by bleeding after a previous stunning, and obtained the 
following results : (1) The rabbit killed according to the Jewish 
method weighed 2,000 gm. and lost 80 gm. of blood ( = 72 per cent.). 
The residual blood in the body was 28 per cent. (2) A stunned 
rabbit, weighing 1,950 gm., lost 50 gm. of blood (=46 per cent.). 
The residual blood in the body was 54 per cent.). (3) A stuuned 
rabbit, weighing 1,850 gm., lost 30 gm. of blood (=29 per cent.), the 
residual blood in the body being 71 per cent. The author killed 
three rabbits of the same litter weighing 2,000 gm., by cutting the 



METHODS OF SLAUGHTER 139 

throat and by bleeding after previous stunning or breaking the neck. 
The quantities of blood obtained were as follows : (1) In the rabbit 
killed by cutting the neck, 81 gm.; (2) after a previous blow on the 
head, 62 gm.; (3) after previously breaking the neck, 36 gm. 

The results of these slaughtering experiments with rabbits can 
not, however, be applied directly to the large food animals, as shown 
by Goltz (Ztschr. f. Milch u. Fleisch Hyg., YIII), and corroborated 
by P. Falk. Goltz demonstrated by careful weighings that, in the 
large food animals, bleeding after stunning was not less complete 
than after cutting the throat without stunning. 

In cattle the following average quantities of blood were 
obtained : (a) In slaughtering according to the Jewish method, 3.24 
per cent, of the live weight ; (b) in using the shooting mask, 3.20 per 
cent, of the live weight ; (c) in using the striking mask, 2.89 per 
cent, of the live weight. 

In calves : (a) In slaughtering according to the Jewish method, 
4.90 per cent, of the live weight ; (b) by the butcher's method of 
cutting the throat, 4.90 per cent; (c) by a blow with a hammer, 5.07 
per cent. 

In sheep : (a) In slaughtering according to the Jewish methods 
4.15 per cent.; (b) by cutting the throat or severing the carotids, 4.31 
per cent.; (c) by a blow with a hammer, 4.35 per cent. 

Or, expressed in other words, a beef animal of 700 kg. live 
weight lost : 

(a) In slaughtering according to the Jewish ritual, 22.68 kg., 
of blood; (b) by use of the shooting mask, 22.40 kg.; (c) by use of 
the striking mask, 20.23 kg. 

A calf of 60 kg. live weight lost : 

(a) In slaughtering according to the Jewish ritual, 2.95 kg.; 

(b) by the butcher's method of sticking without stunning, 2.94 kg.; 

(c) by a hammer blow, 3.04 kg. 

A sheep of 50 kg. live weight lost : 

(a) By the Jewish method of slaughtering, 2.07 kg. of blood; 

(b) by the butcher's method of killing without stunning, 2.15 kg.^ 

(c) by a hammer blow, 2.17 kg. 

P. Falk called attention to the fact that he found no difference 
with regard to the keeping qualities in meat preserved in cold 
storage whether the animals had been killed according to the Jewish 
method or by killing after a previous stunning. 

To the thoracic bleeding and slaughter according to the Jewish 
method, objection is made that these methods of slaughter make a 
highly repulsive and grewsome impression, since they are performed 



140 THE ART OF BUTCHERING 

on animals while fully conscious. The act of slaughtering, however, 
is always a repulsive sight. Furthermore, it has been shown that 
animals slaughtered according to the Jewish method pass very 
quickly into unconsciousness (according to Zangger, in one-half 
minute ; according to Probstmayr, in 25 to 30 seconds ; according to 
Esser, 40 seconds).* The respiratory and general muscular spasms 
which appear later are, therefore, merely reflex contractions. The 
death agony ceases after about four minutes. 

In' the case of thoracic bleeding, as well as in slaughter 
according to Jewish methods, the preparations for the act are 
repulsive, especially the rough manner of throwing cattle to be 
killed by the Jewish method and the unnecessarily long time the 
animals are kept down before the act of slaughter. These crudities, 
however, may be prevented by suitable regulations., 

Legislative provisions for the practice of the Jewish method of 
slaughter. — A Meiningen circular of May 29, 1881, in harmony with 
the Prussian Ministerial decree of January 14, 1889, with reference 
to the prevention of the unnecessary abuse of animals, declares as 
follows : 

Sec. 5. With regard to slaughter according to Israelitic custom, the following 
special provisions, in addition to the preceding sections 2 to 4, are in force : 

1. Large animals shall be thrown only by means of pulleys or similar devices. 
The pulleys shall be firmly attached and the ropes used shall be strong .and flexible. 

2. While the animal is down, the head must be supported by proper devices, so 
that the battering of the head and breaking of the horns are prevented. 

3. When the animal is thrown, the schachter must be present and must 
immediately perform the act of slaughter. This must be carried out as quickly and 
effectively as possible. 

4. Not only during the act of slaughtering-, but also for the whole period from 
the muscular spasms which appear after the throat is cut until death takes place, the 
head of the animal must be securely held. 

5. Slaughter according to the Jewish method shall be practiced only by a 
schachter who has been approved by a ducal rabbi. 

Methods of throwing. — For throwing cattle to be slaughtered 
according to the Jewish methods, numerous more or less complicated 
devices have been recommended. All these apparatus are unneces- 
sary, since the simplest, surest, and safest method of throwing cattle 
consists in the so-called casting, for the practice of which nothing 
but a rope is required (a casting rope of about 20 metres length) 

. * According to more recent investigations which were undertaken by the Saxon 
Commission for Veterinary Service, the cornea reflex of steers and bulls slaughtered 
according to Jewish methods did not cease until after 3-J-, 4 and 5 minutes. 



METHODS OF SLAUGHTER 



141 



(Fig. 9). Although this method of throwing was devised by German 
veterinarians, it was first prescribed for slaughter according to the 
Jewish method in Russia at the instigation of the societies for the 
prevention of cruelty to animals. Animals which are thrown by the 
method of casting lie down quietly upon the side and extend the legs 
in such a manner that they may be easily tied. 

In Stuttgart, the former municipal veterinarian Sauer introduced 
an equally good method of throwing. The animals are secured by a 
short rope attached to the head and brought through a ring which 
is fastened to the floor. A short piece of rope, which is furnished 
with a ring in the end, is attached to each metacarpus and one end 
of the casting rope is fastened to the hind leg above the hoof. The 

Fig. 9. 




Method of throwing cattle. 

casting rope is run through the rings of the ropes attached to the 
front legs in such a manner that the free end appears on the side of 
the free hind foot. The rope is tightened through a pulley and the 
animal falls or, rather, lies down slowly upon the side. The free 
hind foot, which acts as a support, prevents violent falling and 
floundering. 

A frequent repulsive sight in slaughtering powerful steers and 
bulls according to the Jewish method is caused by a defective 
fastening of the head. It may thus occur that the animals break 
loose as soon as the cutting of the throat is begun and throw the 
head with the half-severed throat violently from side to side. To 
prevent this occurrence, Jakob has devised a suitable apparatus. 
This consists, as shown by Fig. 10, of a simple iron rod 1| meters 
long and forked at one end. The ends of the bifurcation are bent 
back in the form of a hook. The other end is provided with a 
liandle. A moveable iron ring, fastened by a screw, is attached to 



142 THE ART OF BUTCHERING 

the iron rod. The use of the apparatus consists in grasping the 
horns of the animal by the curved ends of the bifurcations, a. The 
point, b, of the apparatus, therefore, comes to lie upon the forehead. 
Thereupon the movable ring, c, on the rod is pushed over the mouth 
and nose, and fastened to the iron rod by means of a screw,/. The 
head of the animal is thereby held fast in the apparatus. 




Apparatus for holding the head of cattle. 

The apparatus of Jakob, just described, has been modified by 
Thielemann. Moreover, Winkler has constructed a new and very 
practical head fastener (Ztschr. f. Milch u. Fleisch Hyg., IV). 

The blood of animals slaughtered according to the Jewish 
method is to be excluded from utilization as human food for the 
reason that it is contaminated by the stomach contents which flow 
out through the severed esophagus. 

Prohibitions against slaughter by the Jewish method. — Slaughtering 
according to the Jewish method is prohibited in Switzerland and in 
the Kingdom of Saxony. A decree of the Saxon Ministry of the 
Interior, by which a petition for the removal of the prohibition 
against this method of slaughter was denied, is of some interest. In 
the conclusion of the decree it is stated, " There is no good reason 
to make an exception, as has been requested by the Jews, in case of 
the provision concerning the moral status of the matter, which is not 
at all concerned with religion, but simply with the consideration of 
the prevention of cruelty to animals ; for, it is apparent that any 
ritual custom, of however long standing, and having its origin in 
variable human decrees, does not deserve any consideration if it is 
calculated to give moral offence, or if it is at variance with the 
general laws of the government. The Ministry of the Interior can 
jiot decide to allow the requested exceptional treatment of Jewish 



METHODS OF SLAUGHTER 143 

slaughtering, especially since it would certainly be considered, by 
the great majority of the people as an unjustifiable favor to an 
isolated minority." 

The prohibitions against slaughtering by the Jewish method 
which were decreed in the Prussian governmental districts of Danzig 
and Marienburg, were lately removed after a decision of the Ministry 
of the Interior and Education upon complaint of a rabbi, and it was 
declared to be impermissible to decide for particular local police 
.districts whether cruelty to animals was involved in the Jewish 
method of slaughter and to forbid this method of slaughter by police 
regulations. On the other hand, the local police authorities in 
Prussia, according to a Ministerial decree issued by the Imperial 
Government at Diisseldorf, are authorized to prohibit any slaughter- 
ing according to the Jewish method in excess of that, required for 
the Jewish population. The Administrative Court decided that a 
conditional prohibition is not permissible, and that this practice 
was to be forbidden or permitted to all schachters. Ifc was further 
held that the various communities were authorized to pass regula- 
tions concerning the manner in which the abattoirs were to be used 
and concerning the procedure to be followed in slaughtering. 

2. Pithing and breaking the neck furnish the least disagreeable 
sight for the spectator. The animals fall and remain motionless. 
On the other hand, pithing has been rightly characterized by Gerlach 
as most gruesome, since by this act consciousness remains intact 
until it is destroyed by the cerebral anemia in consequence of the 
loss of blood. Moreover, the methods of pithing and breaking the 
neck have the great disadvantage that bleeding is incomplete. -In 
the medulla oblongata are found the vital center, respiratory center, 
regulative center for heart action, the dominating vasomotor center, 
and the center of muscular contractions. By mutilating the medulla 
oblongata these centers are destroyed, and thus all the important 
factors in thorough bleeding, respiratiou, heart action, and reflex 
muscular contractions are eliminated. The animals bleed to some 
extent, as Schmidt-Mulheim states, into their own blood vessels. 

In the government districts of Gumbinnen and Diisseldorf, the 
killing of cattle by pithing is forbidden, and the same is true for the 
whole Russian Empire, in which it was previously the exclusive 
method of slaughter. The abandonment of pithing as a method of 
slaughtering in Russia was chiefly brought about by the experiments 
of Dembo, who showed that pithed steers still ate salt and bread 
which was offered to them. 



144 THE AET OF BUTCHERING 

3. As the best and most humane method of slaughter, we must 
consider those methods in which the animals are bled after being 
stunned. The manner in which the stunning shall be accomplished 
is of no consequence. Skilled butchers kill an animal by a hammer 
blow as quickly and as certainly as by means of a killing ax, slaughter 
mask, or by any other stunning instrument. The use of the hammer, 
especially in the case of hogs, is simpler than that of slaughter 
apparatus. In Berlin, for example, cattle and hogs are killed 
exclusively with a hammer or with the head of an ax. With less 
experienced persons, the slaughter mask or the apparatus of Klein- 
schmidt and Kogler render the blow more certain than that with a 
hammer. The use of this apparatus requires, however, more time 
and an assistant in the slaughter of hogs, which is not necessary in 
using the hammer. These facts are to be considered in slaughter- 
ing on a large scale. 

The killing ax requires for its exclusive use considerable skill. 
The slaughtering mask is frequently unsatisfactory for killing bulls. 
The animals either do not fall at all or plunge, and spring up again 
and struggle. The use of the shooting mask, moreover, is not 
without danger. Thus, a few years ago a butcher's apprentice was 
injured in an accident with a shooting mask of the old kind, and 
another accident happened in the abbatoir of Erfurt in the use of 
Staehl's shooting apparatus. The ball passed outward under the 
left ear of the animal and shattered the femur of the assistant who 
was standing by the head of the animal. Moreover, the bleeding of 
the animals may be incomplete in case the bullet injures the medulla 
oblongata, and, finally, the meat is injured if the bullet penetrates 
the' cervical musculature. All these accidents, however, may be 
avoided by the skilful use of the apparatus, as is contended by 
Mittermaier, one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the intro- 
duction of the shooting apparatus for killing animals, from observa- 
tions made in Heidelburg and Swiss abbatoirs, in which all of the 
larger food animals and, in recent times, also hogs, are shot. In 
some abbatoirs, as in that at Potsdam, the shooting is done by an 
employee of the abbatoir (hall master), whereby accidents have thus 
far been avoided. 

The methods which require a previous stunning, when properly 
practiced, satisfy completely humanitarian sentiments in so far as 
the first violent assault is followed by a paralysis of the sensory 
centres of the nervous system. Moreover, they serve the interests 
of meat hygiene, since, in consequence of the integrity of the medulla 
oblongata, a thorough bleeding is not prevented. Only when, after 



ORDER OF PROCEDURE IN COMMERCIAL SLAUGHTERING 145 

the use of the killing ax or slaughter mask, not only the cerebrum 
but also the medulla oblongata are destroyed by the introduction of 
a rod, is bleeding checked in a manner like that which occurs in 
pithing and breaking the neck. This may also occur, as already 
mentioned, in shooting animals* 

The slaughtering methods in which bleeding follows stunning, 
in spite of their advantages, are not much in vogue. In a large 
proportion of the abbatoirs in various parts of Germany, it is 
allowable to kill sheep and calves by thoracic bleeding or cutting 
the throat without previous stunning. It is difficult to understand 
why these animals should not be allowed the benefit of a previous 
stunning in slaughter. The procedure of communities which make 
obligatory the stunning of all food animals, including those from 
which man has nothing to fear, deserves all recognition. 

Two notable regulations (Duchy of Meiningen, of May 23, 1891, 
and the Kingdom of Saxony, on March 21, 1892) prescribe that, in 
the slaughtering of all animals, stunning must precede the removal 
of the blood. The only exception is in the case of fowls. The 
Saxon regulation, which, as shown on page 142, does not accept the 
Jewish method of slaughter, prescribes as follows concerning the 
act of stunning : In the case of cattle, stunning shall be accom- 
plished by the use of the slaughtering mask, except in young ani- 
mals where the incomplete development of the skull renders it 
unnecessary. With reference to the stunning of hogs, calves and 
sheep by a blow upon the head or neck, the choice of a stunning 
apparatus is left to the discretion of the butchers, although the 
wooden hammer is recommended for calves, the bolt apparatus for 
hogs, and the striking bolt hammer or a blunt ax for sheep. 

4. — Order of Procedure in Commercial Slaughtering. 

After the death of the animal, skinning takes place in the case 
of horses, cattle and sheep, and scalding and singeingt in the case 
of hogs, while calves are immediately hung up for exenteration.:}: 

* According to Siegmuncl, it is desirable to bleed animals which have been shot, 
not immediately, but after a lapse of from one to three minutes, since then bleeding 
will be thorough and rather more so than in slaughtering by the Jewish method, in 
which the trunks of the carotid- arteries often become closed very quickly. 

f The meat of singed hogs is said to keep better than that of scalded hogs. 
Singeing, however, renders the inspection of the skin more difficult. 

| Calves, especially young and poor specimens, are preferably sold in the skin, 
in order to prevent the drying of the meat, whereby it becomes of a lighter color and 
of a less desirable appearance. 



146 THE ART OF BUTCHERING 

Thereupon, after making a cut along the middle of the inferior 
abdominal wall, the exenteration of the body cavity takes place in 
such a manner that first the intestines and then the stomach are 
separated from their natural connections. The intestines are all 
removed, together with the mesentery. The spleen, in the case of 
cattle, is left in connection with the stomach ; in hogs, with the mes- 
entery ; while in calves and sheep the spleen remains in the body. 
The liver in horses and cattle is removed separately. In all other 
kinds of food animals it is taken out in its natural connection with 
the lungs and heart (the so-called sling), or is removed from the 
body cavity without splitting the sternum, or after a previous open- 
ing of the thorax. The latter process is required in the interest of 
an accurate inspection. 

In hogs, after the above described operations, the separation of 
the retro-peritoneal fat tissue occurs, and with it that of the kidneys. 
This separation is necessary in order that a thorough inspection of 
the abdominal musculature for cysticerci, calcareous concretions, 
hemorrhages, etc., may take place. While horses, cattle, calves and 
sheep are being skinned, the lower portions of the extremities are 
also separated from their connections below the carpal and tarsal 
joint. As a rule, the exenteration of the bladder, uterus and rectum 
takes place immediately after the removal of the intestines. 

With the exenteration of the abdominal, pelvic and thoracic 
•cavities are connected the removal of the brain from the cranial 
■cavity, and the separation of the tongue from its muscular connec- 
tions with the lower jaw, so that the cranial cavity and the mouth 
and pharyngeal cavities are laid open. Finally, in the case of 
torses, cattle and hogs, the trunk is divided into two halves by 
splitting the spinal column. 

Further procedure in dissection, according to ordinary methods 
of butchering, is different in different food animals. 

In cattle, after a previous quartering,* the more valuable cuts 
of meat are sold separately. As the more valuable parts, we have 
the purely muscular portions of the body, which contain only small 
quantities of bone and sinew. As less valuable parts, on the other 
hand, we have the portions which are poor in muscle, but strongly 
infiltrated with fat tissue (tallow), and which contain a large propor- 
tion of bone and sinew. This distinction finds expression in the 



* Quartering is not practiced in a uniform manner. In Northern Germany the 
fore quarter is usually separated from the hind quarter between the ninth and tenth 
ribs, thus leaving three ribs on the hind quarter; while in Southern Germany the 
separation takes place before the next to the last rib. 



OBDEB OF PEOCEDUBE IN COMMEBCIAL SLAUGHTEBING 



147 



different prices. The so-called fillet universally brings a higher 
price than the other muscular parts ; in London and Paris, for 
example, three to four times as much as the thin abdominal meat. 



Fig. 11. 




Classification of beef in Berlin. 
I. Quality: 1, Rinderbraten ; 2, Blume; 3, Eckschwanzstuck ; 4, Mittelschwanz- 

stiick; 5, Kugel; 6, Oberschale. 
II. Quality: 7, Untersclrwanzstiick ; 8, Bug'; 9, Mittelbrust. 

III. Quality: 10, Fehlrippe; 11, Kamm; 12, Querrippe; 13, Brustkern. 

IV. Quality: 14, Quernierenstiick ; 15, Hessen; 16, Dunnung. 



Fig. 12. 




Classification of beef in Vienna. 
I. Quality: Lungenbraten (nicht eingezeichnet) ; 1, Beiried; 2, Hied (Rostbraten) ; 
3, Hiiferschwanzl ; 4, Gschnattes Schwanzl; 5, Ortschwanzl ; 3, Rieddeckel; 
7, Zwerchried ; 8, Schleniraried (Riedhiif el). 
II. Quality: 9, Schulter; 10, Dicker Spitz; 11, Kruspelspitz; 12, JVIageres Meisl; 
13 und 14, Fettes Meisl; 15, Kamm; 16, Brustkern; 17, Dickes Kugel; 
18, Mittleres Kiigel ; 19, Dunnes Kugel; 20, Tristl; 21, Bauchfleisch. 
III. Quality: 22, Zapfen; 23, Wadschinken; 24, Stich; 25, Backen. 



148 



THE ART OF BUTCHERING 



Otherwise, t'he purely muscular parts exhibit no noteworthy differ- 
ences in the protein content. While, therefore, in ordinary traffic 
various prices customarily prevail for these parts, this must be 
explained, not by the higher nutritive value of particular parts of 
the meat — as a rule, the consumer does not inquire at all concern- 
ing the nutritive- value — but by the better flavor which is due to 
the tender character of the fibers and the content of extractives (see 
page 196). 

AccordiDg to Ignatiev, the valuation of the meat corresponds to 
the unequal distribution of two albuminoid substances in the mus- 
culature, myosin and myostromin (the essential components of the 



Fig. 13. 



\2 

3 \. 




1 


9 


5 


12 \ 


/ e 


ft / 






13 






7 yj 






10 



15 



.»)} 



Classification of beef in London. 
I. Quality: 1, loin; 2. aitchbone; 3 and 4, silverside; 5, fore rib. 
Ii. Quality: 6, top side; 7, leg; 8, street; 9, mid rib; 10, shoulder. 

III. Quality: 11, thin flank; 12, chuck; 13, fore quarter flank. 

IV. Quality: 14, brisket; 15, clod and sticking ; 16 and 17, shank; 18, cheek. 

muscle mass, according to Danilewski). The more work which the 
muscle has performed, the poorer it is in the former and the richer 
in the latter. The relative quantity of both substances, according 
to Ignatiev's investigations, is so distributed according to the region 
of the body that the myosin decreases from the head toward the 
tail, while the myostromin increases. The latter exists in large pro- 
portions in the parts below the vertebral column. 



Classification of beef. — The most expensive cuts of meat are : The 
lumbar muscles, iliopsoas, quadratus lumborum and diaphragmatic 
columns ("lungenbraten," "lummel," fillet), the dorsal muscles with 
their bony foundation, sacro-lumbalis and longissimus dorsi (roast, 



ORDER OF PROCEDURE IN COMMERCIAL SLAUGHTERING 



149 



sirloin, porterhouse), the muscles of the croup and thigh (rump, hip, 
leg), the_ musculature of the scapula, together with the humerus 
and forearm (shoulder), the musculature above and below the 
shoulder on either side of the withers (spare ribs), the thicker parts 
of the abdominal muscles (cross ribs), and the sternum with the 
connected soft parts ("beef breast"). The cheapest cuts of meat 
are the thinner portions of the abdominal muscles (flank), the cer- 
vical and cephalic muscles, and also the muscles of the elbow and 
hock. The remaining groups of muscles receive different valuations 
in different regions. Everywhere, however, the hind quarters are 
more highly prized and bring a higher price than the fore quarters. 

Fig. 14. 




• Classification of beef in Paris. 
I. Quality; 1 and 3, semelle; 5, culotte; 4, tende de tranche sous la semelle; 

5, aloyau ; 6, filet (not shown). 
II. Quality: 7, plats de cotes decou verts sous l'epaule; 8, entre-cotes et cotes; 9, 
talon de collier; 10, bavette d'aloyau; 11, plats de cotes couverts. 
III. Quality: 12, collier; 13, pis; 14, gites. 
IV Quality: 16', surlonges; 17, plats de joues. 



The latter serve especially in the preparation of meat broths and 
sausages, and are, therefore, characterized as "soup meat" and 
" sausage meat." The Israelites are required by their food laws to 
eat only the fore quarters of food animals, and are allowed to eat 
the hind quarters only after they are "geporcht," that is, when the 
large vascular trunks are removed. (According to Goltz, this cus- 
tom is based on the 32nd chapter of the first Book of Moses, in 
which the struggle of Jacob with the angel is described. The angel 
dislocated Jacob's hip, " Therefore, the children of Israel eat no 
sinews in the hip joint to the present day, since the sinews in the 
hip joint of Jacob were touched.") 



150 



THE ART OF BUTCHERING 



Classification in Berlin. — After the removal of the fillet and the 
tongue, the remainder of the muscular trunk, together with the 
extremities, is cut up according to four principal qualities and 
sixteen sorts (Fig. 11); 

I. — (1) Roast, (2) prime, (3) corner rump, (4) middle rump, (5) 
round, (6) upper round. 

II. — (7) Lower rump, (8) shoulder, (9) middle breast. 

III. — (10) Spare rib, (11) neck, (12) short ribs, (13) fore breast. 

IV. — (14) Cross kidney, (15) Hessian (knee joint), (16) flank. 



Fig. 15. 




Classification of veal. 
I. Quality: 1, leg; 2, loin roast. 
II. Quality: 3, back; 4, withers; 5, shoulder. 

III. Quality: 6, neck; 7, breast; 8, flank. 

IV. Quality: 7, head; 10, feet. 

Classification in Vienna. — According to a private communication 
of Toscano, three chief qualities and twenty-four sorts are distin- 
guished in Vienna : 

I. — (1) Lungenbraten, (2) side roast, (3) roast, (4) huferschwanzl, 
(5) gschnattes schwanzl, (6) ortschwanzl, (7) rieddeckel, (8) zwer- 
chried, (9) schlemmried (riedhiifel). 

II. — (10) Shoulder, (11) thick point, (12) crust point, (13) poor 
cut, (14) fat cut, (15) neck, (16) fore breast, (17) thick round, (19) 
thin round, (20) tristl, (21) flank. 

III.— (22) Plug, (23) hock joint, (24) stick piece, (25> cheeks.* 



* In Vienna, an especially high value is placed by certain admirers of the mus- 
cular part of the diaphragm upon the so-called crow or crown meat. The crown meat 
is much prized also in Southern Germany, especially m Bavaria. In Munich there is 
a special crown meat establishment in which this meat is prepared, as a kind of deli- 
cacy, by boiling. 



ORDER OF PROCEDURE IN COMMERCIAL SLAUGHTERING 15L 

The classifications of meat in London and Paris are apparent 
from the accompanying illustrations. Calves are cut up as required. 

Classification of veal. — In the calf, the greatest value is placed 
upon the muscle mass of the hind quarter (leg), of the back (loin 
roast, back, cutlet), the withers (corresponding to the "spare rib" 
of cattle), while the shoulder, neck, breast and flank produce a 
smaller value. 

On the market the thymus of calves (sweetbread) is reckoned 
as meat, and is sold at a comparatively high price. The thymus of 
calves is a food which is readily digested, on account of the lactic 
acid which it contains. It possesses also considerable nutriment in 

Fig. 16. 




Classification, of mutton. 
I. Quality: 1, hack; 2, leg. 
II. Quality: 3, shoulder. 
III. Quality: 4, breast and flank ; 5, neck; 6, head. 

the form of albumen and fibrin. Milk calves furnish an especially 
large and valuable thymus, while that in calves which are reared 
artificially are less valuable. The weight of a thymus varies between 
200 and 2,000 gm. The thymus of adult cattle is worthless. It 
possesses a leathery consistency, and is often sandy in consequence 
of a deposit of carbonate and phosphate of lime in the glandular 
substance. 

In preparing a sheep carcass for sale, a transverse cut is made 
in such a manner that the fore quarters with the neck, thorax and 
abdominal muscles form one part, while the juicy back with the legs 
form another part. No further classification occurs in cutting up the 
sheep. (Fig. 16.) 

Hogs are first separated into two lateral halves by a dividing 
plane extending from the head to the tail. Thereupon the legs or 



152 



THE ART OF BUTCHERING 



hams (the most valuable part of the hog) are separated, and then 
the separation of the halves of the head (cheeks) and the lower 
portions takes place. The remaining part of the halved trunk, 
together with the anterior extremities, is divided into an upper and 
lower portion by a cut extending backward and upward from the 
shoulder joint. Thereby the abdominal musculature is left on the 
lower portion. The upper part furnishes the hog back (carr6), or 
the "carbonade meat," the meat of the roast ribs (cutlets), the 
so-called spare rib and the withers, while the under portion fur- 
nishes the shoulder, the breast piece and the flank (" sides, smoked 
meat"). 

Fig. 17. 




Classification of pork. 
T. Quality: 1, ham; 2, loin; 3, cutlet. 
II. Quality: 4, withers; 5, shoulder and breast. 

III. Quality: 6, flank. 

IV. Quality: 7, head with cheeks; 8, feet. 

Zschokke, in a very noteworthy work, condemns, as an evil 
practice, the habit of butchers in cutting into various kinds of 
pathological tissue, especially tuberculous areas ; also the habit of 
holding the knife between the lips or teeth. In this connection it 
should not be forgotten that butchers represent a considerable con- 
tingent to the number of human .beings who die of tuberculosis. 
The practice of artificial respiration, during which the assistant 
stands upon the slaughtered animal and stamps upon the abdomen 
and thorax, is to be characterized as a bad habit and should be for- 
bidden, since the stomach contents may thus be forced through the 
pharyngeal cavity into the trachea and bronchi Likewise, washing 
the lungs in impure water, washing the meat, and, finally, " drawing 
out the blood " in cases of incomplete bleeding, which is really only 
an extraction of blood coloring matter by allowing the meat to lie 
in water, should be forbidden as highly improper. 



IT. 
INSPECTION OF SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS.* 



General Discussion. — It is desirable that the expert be present 
in person at the slaughter, in order to make it impossible from the 
beginning for the tradesmen to attempt any removal of pathological 
products, or the presentation of healthy organs in the place of 
diseased ones. A supervision of slaughter is also desirable, for the 
reason that exudations and transudations into the body cavity flow 
out during the process of slaughter, and thus escape the notice of 
the expert inspector if he does not begin inspection until after the 
slaughter is complete. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that 
butchers understand very well how to conceal certain alterations. 
Thus, one may observe in abattoirs how, by careful washing, 
butchers remove the ichorous contents of the peritoneal cavity in 
cases of perforative peritonitis of calves, and how they remove the 
fibrinous deposit by pulling or scraping it off, and in this manner 
render the real condition, which was quite striking, very difficult to 
recognize. The same may be said in cases of pleuritis, pericarditis 
and metritis. 

The practice, which has become especially prevalent/ of "remov- 
ing abscesses and certain parasites (echinococci) in arid upon organs, 
tuberculous masses on the serous membranes, exterior surface of 
organs and in the lymph glands, should be checked by severe pun- 
ishment. Fortunately, we are in a position to demonstrate easily 
such attempts to obscure the actual condition in diseased animals. 
The removal of masses of material from different organs is evidenced 
by loss of substance. Thus, the frequently practiced removal of the 
pleura on account of tuberculosis or inflammatory alterations, espe- 
cially in meat which is introduced from foreign countries, is to be 
recognized by the fact that the ribs and intercostal muscles come to 
be exposed and are not covered by a glistening membrane. In the 
place of the smooth, glistening, transparent pleura, there appears a 

* In this chapter only macroscopic meat inspection will be considered. Micro- 
scopic inspection for trichina is discussed in connection with the account of trichina. 

153 



154 INSPECTION OF SLAUGHTEKED ANIMALS 

more or less conspicuous sub-pleural connective tissue, which has 
become cloudy and opaque on account of the introduction of air 
(artificial emphysema). The nature of the pathological process in 
the removed pleura is, under these conditions, still recognizable 
from the fact that the lymph glands, which lie in the entrance to the 
thorax and are surrounded by fat tissue, exhibit alterations. 

Quite frequently also the uteri of cows filled with well devel- 
oped fetuses are laid aside in order to make use of the meat of 
so-called unborn animals as a human food material. To prevent 
this underhand dealing, all inspected uteri are to be cut up and 
condemned. In this way the removal of pregnant uteri becomes 
impossible, since for each slaughtered cow an intact uterus must be 
presented. 

If the inspector can not be present at the slaughter of all ani- 
mals (as, fOr instance, in small slaughterhouses where no expert 
inspector is present, or in very large slaughterhouses with extensive 
operations), it should be required that all organs should remain in 
the slaughtered animal as nearly as possible in their natural condi- 
tion. At any rate, the spleen, kidneys, liver, lungs, heart and udder, 
as well as the skin (the latter on account of description for legal 
purposes) should not be separated. In so far as exenteration can- 
not be avoided, the organs must be left in their natural connection 
with one another. In case several auimals are slaughtered at the 
same time, the exenterated organs should be hung up near the 
animal body to which they belong, in such a manner that no inter- 
change is possible. Furthermore, no organs should be removed 
before 1 the inspection is completed. It should also be forbidden 
that any sort of alteration, such as scalding the stomach, mesen- 
tery, hides, feet, etc., be undertaken in any of the separated parts 
of the animal before they have been subjected to expert in- 
spection. 

Finally, meat inspection should be performed, so far as possible, 
by daylight, since by artificial illumination finer alterations may 
escape the notice of the inspector. Moreover, in illumination by 
gas even the acute stages of icterus are usually overlooked. The 
government president at Posen, in view of the fact that an accurate 
judgment of slaughtered animals is, as a rule, possible only in day- 
light, decreed on June 15, 1896, that in future the inspection of 
animals slaughtered in public slaughterhouses of the governmental 
district of Posen should be performed only by daylight. Excep- 
tions from this decree are allowed only in case the abattoir is 
lighted by electricity or by some other artificial source of light 



CHIEF POINTS IN INSPECTION 155 

which, in the judgment of the official veterinarian, is of equal 
intensity. The official veterinarians are instructed in making their 
regular inspection of public abattoirs to give special attention to 
this decree. 

Chief Points in Inspection. — The most important characters 
of the normal or pathological condition of organs are size, color, 
sheen, conspicuousness or inconspicuousness, as well as uniformity 
or lack of uniformity in the macroscopic structure, blood content of 
the cut surface and consistency. Attention should be given to these 
characteristics in each organ. All organs are to be carefully in- 
spected and palpated. Certain parts, as, for example, the lymphatic 
glands at the points of introduction of tuberculous infection, are 
always to be examined by means of an incision, but other parts, on 
the contrary, only in case of the suspicion of an alteration. 

Stamping Inspected Animals. — All organs as well as the 
meat are to be marked after inspection is completed with an 
indelible stamp, in order to exclude the possibility of presenting 
organs which have already been inspected in the place of fresh 
diseased organs. Moreover, the stamping of inspected organs and 
cuts of meat render it possible for consumers to buy only inspected 
meat, and offers the sanitary police a means of demonstrating 
evasions of meat inspection. For stamping fresh meat, non- 
poisonous, quickly-drying and adhesive colors are to be used. 
Pickled and smoked meat should be marked with a branding 
stamp. 

Condemnation. — Diseased animals and parts, or those which 
are suspected of being diseased, should be condemned preliminarily 
by a formal act. In Berlin this is done by pasting on a label with 

the inscription, " Preliminarily rejected and condemned, Dr. , 

Municipal Veterinarian." In case of final condemnation and 
exclusion from consumption, the animals or parts in question must 
be removed to an official inclosure (sanitary slaughterhouse) and 
there be disinfected under official control. If, however, the animals 
or parts which were preliminarily condemned may be sold under 
declaration as spoiled food material, in the sense of the food law, 
this quality is to be characterized by a special stamp, " spoiled, 
non-marketable, or inferior value, freibank meat." The sale of the 
last named meat must take place under official supervision. (Com- 
pare page 48.) 



156 INSPECTION OF SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS 

Illegal Removal. — According to Sec. 137 of the Criminal Law- 
Statutes, imprisonment not to exceed one year is prescribed for 
intentional concealment, destruction, or complete or partial removal 
of meat which has been condemned by the competent authorities or 
officials. The Imperial Court (Decision II, Criminal Senates, May 
30, 1884) decided that the city veterinarians in Berlin, according to 
the text of Sees. 16 and 34 of the local regulations for the enforce- 
of condemnation, were competent in the sense of Sec. 137 of the 
Criminal Statutes. According to the meat inspection law, condem- 
nations are reserved for the police authorities. (See page 84.) 

Inspection of Diseased Organs.— With regard to the prac- 
tice of the inspection of diseased organs, the statement of Zschokke 
deserves all commendation . " By no means should the detailed 
inspections of pathologically altered organs take place in the public 
portion of the slaughterhouse, and with the ordinary instruments 
used for other purposes. For, by means of such instruments and 
by contaminated hands the contagion may be most easily spread. 
Since, moreover, meat may always sqrve in turn as a nutrient 
medium, it is not improbable that bacteria on it^ even if they do 
not develop, still remain alive and may, be disseminated. The 
danger of infection of man by the meat of tuberculous animals 
consists, perhaps, less in the eating of it — since for the most part it 
is heated to such a degree that bacteria are thereby killed— than in 
manipulating it during its preparation for consumption. "We have 
to consider especially the possibility that bacteria may float in the 
air, and in other ways may gain entrance into the human organism. 
It requires no special argument in this connection to show that the 
subsequent washing of instruments and hands, as it is commonly 
done, furnishes no guaranty against iufection." 

Course of Inspection. — The inspector must make it a rule 
to follow a certain course in the inspection of the various parts of 
slaughtered animals in order that no organ may unintentionally be 
overlooked, and that in every case all organs may be subjected to 
inspection. The following may serve as a guide for the process 
of inspection, which obviously may be altered at will with regard 
to the sequence of the organs.* 



* Thus, many experts begin with the inspection of the fore quarters, and then 
undertake the inspection of the head, internal organs and skm. 



COURSE OF INSPECTION 157 

(a) Cattle. — (For horses, the same procedure may be adopted 
with a few variations.) 

1. Skin. Wounds, abscesses, actinomycomata, anthrax — car- 
buncles, abnormal blood content of the inner surface ; in the horse, 
especially, glanderous processes and botryomycomata. 

2. Head. 

(a) Outer aspect. (Actinomycomata.) 

(b) Alse nasi; lips, hard gums, pharyngeal cavity. (Foot- 
and-mouth disease, rinderpest.) 

(c) Tongue. (Foot-and-mouth disease, actinomycosis — 
palpate.) 

(d) External and internal masticatory muscles. (Cysticerci — 
make an incision.) 

(e) Upper cervical and laryngeal glands. (Tuberculosis,, 
actinomycosis.)* 

For the complete inspection of the head, the inspection of 
the tongue with its connections with the rami of the jaw is re- 
quired. 

If rustling respiratory sounds were perceptible during life, the 
nasal cavities should be inspected after a previous splitting of the 
head in the median line. In horses the nasal cavities are always 
to be inspected (glanders). 

3. Liver. Examination by inspection, palpation, and making 
an incision into the portal glands. (Degenerations, inflammation, 
parasites, tumors, tuberculosis, etc.) Furthermore, an incision 
above in the right lobe and on the posterior surface in the middle 
of the left lobe, and, finally, along the lobus spigelii, as far as the 
large bile ducts. (Liver flukes.) 

4. Heart. Inspection after opening the pericardium, opening 
of the left and right ventricle in the manner customary in post 
mortems. (Degenerations, hemorrhages, endocarditis, cysticerci, 
echino cocci.) 

5. Lungs. Palpation, incision in a transverse direction ; incision 
of the mediastinal and bronchial glands. (Tuberculosis, echino- 
cocci, Strongylidee, inflammations, aspiration of blood and stomach 
contents.) 

6. Spleen. Palpation ; incision of the splenic lymph glands. 
(Swelling, echinococci, tuberculosis.) 



* All lymphatic glands lying on the digestive and respiratory apparatus are to 
be examined for the presence of tuberculous alterations by making an incision. 



158 INSPECTION OF SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS 

7. Kidneys* Inspection or incision extending from the middle 
of the convex border to the renal pelvis, incision of the renal lymph 
glands. (Degenerations, inflammation of the renal pelvis and kidney 
itself, parasites, tuberculosis.) 

8. Stomach. Internal and external surface. (Inflammations, 
tumors, parasites, actinomycomata, serous tuberculosis.) 

9. Intestines. (Inflammations, parasites, hemorrhages, gelatin- 
ous infiltrations, intestinal anthrax, tuberculosis.) 

10. Mesentery. Incision of the mesenteric gland (hemorrhages, 
pentastomes, tuberculosis.) 

11. Omentum. (Hemorrhages, tuberculosis.) 

12. Testicle or uterus. Cutting open the latter. (Inflammations, 
tuberculosis.) 

13. Urinary bladder. Inspection, and press out the contents. 
In order not to destroy the value of the bladders unnecessarily, they 
should be cut only in cases where disease is suspected. (Erythrism, 
cloudy contents, thickening.) 

Hereupon follows : 

14. Inspection of the/our quarters. 

(a) External aspect. (Blood content, hemorrhages, edema, 
tumors, parasites [cysticerci]). All hemorrhages observed 
upon the surface should be examined to determine whether 
they extend deeply into the meat. Bone fractures are often 
characterized by only slight suggillations on the surface of 
the skinned carcass. In female animals the udder is to be 
examined while inspecting the hind quarters, the supra- 
mammary lymph glands should be incised. (Tuberculosis, 
actinomycosis, abscesses.) 

(b) Inner aspect, peritoneum, pleura. (Blood content, inflam- 
mation, tumors, tuberculosis.) The diaphragm should be 
lifted, since otherwise in the hanging animals the altera- 
tions which are found underneath the diaphragm might be 
easily overlooked. 

(c) Spinal column, pelvis and sternum. (Discolorations, 
fractures, osteo-myelitis, tuberculosis.) 

Finally, in case cerebral or motor disturbances were observed 
in inspecting the animals before slaughter, the brain or the ex- 
tremities (hoofs, bones, tendons, joints) are to be subjected to a 
careful inspection. 

* The kidneys are best separated from the fatty capsule immediately after 
slaughter, before it has set, and, until inspected, should be left in their natural con- 
nection with the hind quarters by means of the urethra. 



COURSE OF INSPECTION 159 

(b) Calves. — In calves, inspection takes place in the same 
manner as with cattle, with the exception that the inspection of 
the liver for flukes is omitted. Especial attention in calves should 
be given to the condition : 

1. Of the stomach (ulcus pepticum.) 

2. Of the small intestine (hemorrhagic enteritis, dysentery). 

3. Of the mesenteric and portal glands (congenital and incipient 
tuberculosis). 

4 Of the navel (omphalo-phlebitis). 

5. Of the joints (septic and suppurative polyarthritis). 

(c) Sheep. — In sheep the spleen must be carefully inspected in 
every case (anthrax) ; also the brain ( Coemirus cerebralis). Moreover, 
in sheep, attention should be given to the frequently occurring lung 
and stomach worms, as well as to sarcosporidia in the esophagus 
and skeletal musculature. 

(d) Hogs. — The internal organs, spinal column, pelvis and 
sternum are in general inspected in the same manner as in cattle. 
The liver, lungs, heart, trachea and tongue of hogs are to remain in 
their natural connection. The following variations from the above 
described course of inspection requires consideration in the case of 
hogs : 

1. Careful inspection of the tongue and heart as well as the 
abdominal muscles, free from retroperitoneal fatty tissue ; diaphragm ; 
intercostal, cervical, masticatory and laryngeal muscles for the pres- 
ence of cysticerci.* 

2. An incision into the base of the lungs on account of the fre- 
quent occurrence of Strongylus paradoxus. 

3. Inspection of the skin. (Erythrism, granular eruptions, 
sclerosis in boars.) 

4. Inspection of the udder (actinomycosis). 

5. Inspection of the hoofs (foot-and-mouth disease). 

6. Inspection of all visible skeletal muscles (hemorrhages, cys- 
ticerci, calcareous concretions). 

Inspection may proceed in this way in ordinary cases. If 
pathological alterations are found, the findings of inspection are to 

* In order that the cervical muscles may be inspected for cysticerci, it is desir- 
able that all hogs should be split before inspection ; that is, separated into two lateral 
halves by a longitudinal splitting of the spinal column and the associated soft parts. 



160 INSPECTION OF SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS 

be supplemented according to requirements by determining the 
condition of other organs and, if necessary, by microscopic, bacteri- 
ological and chemical tests. The extent to which this is indicated 
will be especially discussed in connection with the various 
diseases. 



Appendix.— Inspection of Imported Meat. 

The inspection of meat which is introduced in a slaughtered 
condition from any locality inland or from a foreign country is 
always uncertain, for it must be done by the inspector without a. 
knowledge of the condition of the animal before slaughter, and, 
therefore, can not include all of the internal organs. Certain organs, 
as, for instance, the stomach and intestines, can not be introduced 
in connection with the carcasses, since they rapidly pass into decom- 
position and cause an extension of this process to other parts of the 
body. Often, however, there are pathological processes in the 
stomach and intestines which may render the meat injurious to* 
health (septic inflammation of the stomach and intestines, dysen- 
tery). It is easy to understand, therefore, why Hartenstein proposed 
that imported meat should be offered for sale only in separate 
booths, as required by the Prussian slaughterhouse law, and that 
labels should be attached to these sales booths with the inscription, 
"Introduced from outside countries. No responsibility can be 
assumed for the harmlessness of the meat." The same purpose is 
served by a special stamping of introduced meat, so as to make it 
apparent that the meat is introduced. 

Naturally, the inspection of meat introduced from foreign coun- 
tries is not entirely without value, as is shown by the findings of 
trichinae in pork introduced from America, and which had been 
already inspected in the export country. Beside trichinas, macro- 
scopically-visible injurious parasites (beef and pork measle worms) 
may be demonstrated if those parts which serve as a favorite loca- 
tion for these parasites are introduced in their natural connection 
with the animal bodies. For the detection of the beef measle worm, 
the head is of prime importance, and for the demonstration of the 
pork measle worm, the heart and tongue. It is absolutely neces- 
sary to have the head with the lower jaw, together with the masti- 
catory muscles, along with the imported meat, since more than 90 
per cent, of all findings of beef measle worms are possible only 



INSPECTION OF IMPOKTED MEAT 161 

through an inspection of the masticatory muscles. For inspection 
for glanders, the head and skin are indispensable. For the diagnosis 
of tuberculosis, pleuro-pneumonia, cattle plague and swine plague, 
the lungs should be imported along with the meat, and for the deter- 
mination of anthrax and Texas fever the spleeu should be presented. 
For the detection of septic and pyemic diseases and generalized 
tuberculosis, the introduction of the heart, liver and kidneys should 
be required. In female animals, in view of the importance of septic 
diseases of the udder and uterus informing a judgment of the meat, 
the introduction of these organs is desirable. If the introduction of 
the uterus must be abandoned on account of the difficulty of trans- 
porting it when filled by a fetus, the instructions for inspection of 
introduced meat are to be so worded that all carcasses of female 
animals in which an inflammation of the lymph glands, which corre- 
spond to the uterus, is demonstrated shall be excluded from the 
market. It is, moreover, self-evident that individual parts of bodies 
and organs to be imported shall not be removed before inspection 
is completed, and that individual pieces, sausage, canned meat, and 
other mixtures of minced meat which can not be subjected to an 
inspection, shall be absolutely excluded from introduction. (Com- 
pare Sec. 12 of the Meat Inspection Law.) 

Since expert inspection and the proper utilization of the findings- 
in the case of meat introduced from outside countries belong to the 
most difficult functions of meat inspection, this part of the inspec- 
tion should be reserved for veterinarians. Furthermore, in cases 
where a diseased condition is suspected, all means are to be ex- 
hausted in making a more accurate inspection (histological, bacteri- 
ological and chemical methods of testing), in order that, so far as 
possible, only unexceptionable and actually marketable meat shall 
leave the inspection stations for introduced meat. 

The quite generally practiced market control of introduced! 
meat in the inland, and the thorough secondary inspection of freshi 
meat introduced from other localities which have been reserved for 
cities with public slaughterhouses, do not possess as much signifi- 
cance since the meat inspection law has come in force as before, but 
they are, however, a very important means of controlling govern- 
mental meat inspection, as is shown by the experience of the Grand 
Ducby of Baden. (Compare page 89.) 



162 



INSPECTION OF SLAUGHTEBED ANIMALS 



General Review of the Traffic of Germany in Living Animals, Fresh and 
Prepared Meat, Sausages, Lard and Similar Fats in the Year 1897. 



Kind of Product 



Imports 



Exports 



Excess of 
Imports 



Excess of 
Exports 



Living Animals — 

Cows • 

Bulls . 

Steers 

Young animals up to 2-J yrs. 

Calves under 6 weeks 
• Swine, young pigs excepted 

Young pigs 

Sheep 

Lambs 

.(a) Fresh Meat — 

1. Beef 

. 2. Pork 

}" 3. Mutton 

4. Other kinds of meat . . 

,(b) Prepared Meat — 

1. Beef 

\ 2. Pork 

; 3. Ham ....... 

- 4. Bacon ....... 

5. Other meat 

6. Sausage 

7. Meat in cans and other- 

wise hermetically seal'd 
Meat extract ...... 

Bladders 

Intestines 

Stomachs 

Lard and Similar Fats — 
i 1. Oleomargarine . . . 

2. Lard 

;" 3. Tallow 

" 4. Animal and refuse fats 



Number 

73,788 

5,977 

51,282 

71,923 

14,597 

89,826 

2,054 

1,988 

431 

Kg. 

4,449,000 

11,213,300 

66,500 

8,200 



2,170,500 

4,249,900 

3,316,600 

17,010,400 

146,300 

185,900 

3,454,400 
1,095,500 

17,179,200 



20,106,100 

97,280,900 

16,669,300 

5,447,400 



Number 

2,838 

375 

3,951 

4,966 

455 

4,592 

2,298 

199,295 

17,651 

Kg. 

1,119,400 

75,400 

159,000 

11,000 



92,000 

1,314,000 

139,300 

13,400 
737,300 

88,100 
71,900 

1,719,800 



700 

43,600 

1,204,700 

7,445,600 



Number 
70,950 
5,602 
47,331 
66,957 
14,142 
85,234 



Kg. 

3,329,600 

11,137,900 



2,170,500 
4,157,900 
2,002,600 
16,871,100 
132,900 
1,113,600 

3,336,300 
1,023,600 

15,459,400 



20,105,400 
97,237,300 
15,464,600 



Number 



244 

197,307 

17,220 

Kg. 



92,500 
2,800 



1,998,200 



INSPECTION OF IMPORTED MEAT 163 

Frontier abattoirs. — The most satisfactory manner in which we 
may make use of the meat of our neighboring countries, and all 
trans-Atlantic countries which are abundantly supplied with animals, 
consists in the erection of frontier abattoirs. In these the food 
animals coming from foreign countries are slaughtered, and are 
thereupon sent in refrigerator cars to the thickly-populated inland 
districts where food animals are scarce. We possess such abattoirs 
on the Russian boundary in Myslowitz, Kattowitz, Tarlowitz, Beu- 
then; on the sea coast, in the abattoirs at Hamburg, Lubeck, 
Bremen, Kiel, Rostock, Stralsund and Stettin. 

The introduction of living food animals through frontier abat- 
toirs makes it possible to subject improper slaughterhouse wares to 
a careful sanitary police control. Moreover, the introduction of 
living animals in such slaughterhouses may take place under such 
regulations that there need be no fear of introducing animal plagues 
into the country. 

Prohibitive Decrees Issued by the German Empire and the Federal States 

Regarding Imports, According to the Status of the Question 

on November 1, 1900.* 

1. Against Russia the following is prohibited : The importation 
of cattle, sheep, goats, other ruminants, hogs, all parts of ruminants 
in a fresh condition, with the exception of butter, milk and cheese ; 
fresh pork and all preparations of pork, pickled meat, salted meat, 
hams, other smoked products, sausage, meat in brine (with the 
exception of cooked pork and rendered lardt). 

Restricted : The importation of horses, animal parts and pro- 
ducts in a thoroughly dried or salted condition. 

2. Against Austria-Hungary, a prohibition exists against the 
importation of sheep and hogs, and the importation of horses, asses, 
mules, hinnies, cattle:): and goats is restricted. 



* Annual Report on the Distribution of Animal Plagues in the German Empire 
for the year 1900. Berlin, 1901. 

f The inhabitants of frontier districts are permitted to import pork in quantities 
of not more than 2 kg. in a raw condition, or in any condition other than cooked, free 
of duty. In the governmental district of Konigsberg, the importation of thoroughly- 
pickled pork is permitted. 

X The importation of cattle is restricted to such animals as come from regions 
free from pleuro-pneumonia, and which are brought to slaughterhouses under veteri-' 
nary police supervision for immediate slaughter. Moreover, breeding and work ani- 
mals may be imported in the frontier regions. 



164 INSPECTION OF SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS 

3. Against the countries beyond Austria-Hungary (Roumania, 
Bulgaria, Servia), the importation of cattle, sheep, goats and hogs, 
fresh meat and other fresh parts of ruminants, fresh meat of hogs, 
as well as all preparations of pork, with the exception of cooked 
pork and rendered lard, is prohibited. 

4. Against Italy, the importation of cattle, sheep, goats and 
hogs is prohibited, and the importation of horses, mules and asses 
is restricted. 

5. Against Switzerland, the importation of sheep and hogs is 
prohibited, and the importation of horses, mules, asses, cattle and 
goats is restricted. 

6. Against France, the importation of cattle,* sheep, goats and 
hogs is prohibited, and the importation of horses, mules and asses 
is restricted. 

7. Against Luxemburg, the importation of horses, asses, mules, 
hinnies, ruminants and hogs is restricted. 

8. Against Belgium, the importation of cattle, sheep, goats, 
hogs and all f i-esh beef is prohibited, and the importation of horses, 
asses, mules and hinnies is restricted. 

9. Against the Netherlands, the importation of cattle, sheep, 
goats, hogs, and raw animal material in a fresh condition, as well as 
fresh aud recently salted skins from horses and cows, is prohibited ; 
and the importation of horses, asses, mules and hinnies is re- 
stricted. 

10. Against Denmark, the importation of ruminants and hogs 
from the boundary line between Schleswig and Jutlandf, hogs and 
fresh pork by land or sea, raw animal materials in a fresh 
condition by land or sea (with the exception of the transporta- 
tion through the Empire of fresh and salted pelts and skins), is 
prohibited, and the importation of horses and ruminants by sea is 
restricted. 

11. Against Sweden and Norway, the importation of ruminants, 
hogs and fresh pork is prohibited, and the importation of horses is 
restricted. 

12. Against Great Britain and Ireland, the importation of 



* Exceptionally, cattle may be admitted for immediate slaughter in the abat- 
toirs of the frontier localities of Hayingen, Gross-Moyoeuvre Altmiinsterol, Saales 
and Markirch to supply the demand of these communities, and in the fortified towns 
of Metz and Diedenhofen in the interest of provisioning these localities. 

f During the periods from October 1 to December 31, and from April 1 to 
May 31, of each year, poor animals maybe imported into the quarantine station at 
Hvidding. 



INSPECTION OF IMPORTED MEAT 165 

ruminants and hogs is prohibited, and the importation of horses is 
restricted. 

13. Against America, the importation of cattle and fresh beef is 
prohibited, and the importation of horses, goats, sheep and hogs, 
as well as pork and sausage,* is restricted. 

14. Against foreign countries in general, the importation of 
horses, ruminants and hogs by sea, and of frozen meat from foreign 
countries, is restricted. (Proclamation of the Governmental District 
of Konigsberg, January 29, 1895.) 



* Animal products must be provided with an official certificate stating that the 
meat was inspected in the export country according to regulations existing in that 
country, and was found to be free from dangerous properties. (Imperial Decree of 
September 3, 1891.) 



V. 

NORMAL APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF 
MEAT AND ORGANS OF DIFFERENT ANIMALS. 



This subject, in the strict and ordinary sense,* includes a study 
of the normal condition of individual parts, the differential diag- 
nosis of the meat of different animals, and the recognition of the 
age and sex of slaughtered animals. In addition, the subject 
includes the utilization of meat and other parts of slaughtered 
animals. The latter phase of the question •will be treated, in so 
far as seems desirable, as an appendix to the description of the 
normal condition of the different parts. 

1. — Normal Appearance of Different Parts of Food Animals, 

(a) The Skin. 

In the majority of animals which are slaughtered for meat 
(beef, calves, sheep, goats and horses), the skin is not used for 
human food. A knowledge of the normal condition of the skin in 
these animals possesses, therefore, chiefly a clinical significance 
(see "Inspection of Animals Before Slaughter"). Only certain 
parts of the skin of the calf and beef (the head and under parts of 
the face and lower extremities) are used for human food. In the 
case of hogs, on the other hand, the whole skin is considered as 
" meat." 

The skin of slaughtered hogs is characterized by its pure white 
color and elastic consistency. The white color appears more dis- 
tinctly after scalding. In quite exceptional cases, red spots are 
observed on the skin of hogs which are not properly bled, and 
which, consequently, manifest signs of life after being placed in 
the scalding kettle. In old brood sows the skin possesses a uni- 
form hardness, and in old boars the skin is modified on both sides 



* In the broader sense, the pathology of meat belongs also to this subject. 

166 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 16/ 

of the breast to a cartilaginous consistency. The cartilaginous 
parts of the skin of boars is commonly known as the " shield." 

The use of the skin of beef animals for sausage. — In former years 
the heads of young cattle from one to one and one-half years of age 
were sometimes scalded in the same manner as calves' heads, and 
used, together with the fleshy parts of the head, in the preparation 
of schwartenmagen. Recently, however, as stated by Henninger in 
Lahr, following the example set in the Rhine district, it has become 
customary in the region of Lahr to scald the whole skin of young 
cattle and use it for schwartenmagen. This use of the skin is very 
profitable, since otherwise it brings a much smaller price than the 
usual fleshy constituents of the above-named sausage. According 
to the law regulating food materials, it is possible to proceed against 
dealers in such sausage if this unusual method of preparation is not 
made known to the purchasers, for skin sausages are an adulterated 
food material. For other reasons, it would be desirable that skins 
intended for sausages should be investigated with reference to their 
nutritive value in the same manner as meat. 

" Head meat" " leather meat" — In Austria, and recently also in 
Germany (Madgeburg), it has been shown that dealers in skins | 
separate the meat which is found on green skins, especially on the 
head, and place it upon the market. This traffic should be forbid- 
den, except where the meat is separated immediately after slaughter 
and before the skin has been soiled ; and the skin of condemned 
animals must be absolutely excluded from use for this purpose. 

(b) The Blood. 

The normal blood is scarlet red in the arteries, dark red in the 
veins. In contact with atmospheric air, the venous blood also takes 
on a light color. The blood possesses the character of a body color ; 
in thin layers it is opaque ; the reaction is alkaline. The blood of 
different animals possesses a specific odor (volatile fatty acids) 
which becomes more evident on the addition of sulphuric acid. 
Shed blood is characterized by its property of coagulation. In 
the heart and larger vessels of dead animals the blood coagulates 
rapidly, but this does not take place in the capillaries (Yirchow). 

The blood of hogs and calves constitutes the raw material for 
the preparation of blood sausage. Beef blood was formerly not 
used for making sausage, because sausage prepared in that manner 



168 APPEAKANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

was rough, dull, and crumbled on the cut surface. This defect is 
now remedied by the addition of milk. The chief use of beef and 
sheep blood is for the extraction of albumen and the preparation of 
blood and molasses cake and peptonfeed. Where no such profitable 
use is possible, the blood of cattle and sheep (after coagulation, 
drying and grinding) is used as a fertilizer. Seheurer, Kestner and 
others proposed the use of beef blood in the form of blood-bread as 
a food material for animals, or occasionally for man. In St. Peters- 
burg and Odessa blood-bread bakeries have been established. 
Blood-bread is prepared from seven parts rye flour and three parts 
beef blood, and is supposed to serve the purpose of a highly nutri- 
tious and cheap food material for poor people. Whether this is 
really the case appears doubtful, according to the experiments of 
Colasanti and Sacoangeli. These authors, in harmony with Magen- 
die and Pagen, found that dogs fed on an exclusive blood diet for 
twenty to thirty days died. This is to be attributed to the fact that 
defibrinated blood consists exclusively of red blood corpuscles, 
which are composed of nine-tenths hemoglobin and one-tenth 
globulin. It is well kuown that hemoglobin is changed in the 
stomach into indigestible hematin which is excreted with the feces. 
The blood of slaughtered animals can not, according to law, be 
offered for sale as a food material. It is usually rendered impure 
by contact with the stomach contents which pour out from the sev- 
ered esophagus during bleeding. 

(c) The Most Important Internal Organs. 

In the description of the important vital organs, I choose the 
order in which they are removed from the body of the animal after 
slaughter. The figures, which are given on the size and weight of 
the internal organs, are taken from Franck's Anatomy, revised by 
Martin, and from the special work of Schmaltz on this subject. 

The Alimentary Canal. — The covering, smooth and glisten- 
ing ; the walls appearing blue-gray ; moveable contents. Absolute 
absence of contents in the posterior regions of the alimentary tract 
indicates a closure of the lumen, as in incarceration, invagination, 
involution and constriction. 

The alimentary canal of slaughtered animals is used almost 
exclusively as casing material for sausage. The alimentary canal of 
hogs which have been fed acorns is not suitable for this purpose, on 
account of its liability to rupture. 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 169 

The serous coat of the large intestine is much sought after as 
gold beaters' skin and as a basis for animal plasters. 

Stomach. — The stomach is of the same external appearance as 
the intestines. It is empty only iu animals which have fasted. The 
paunch of ruminants is, however, always full. 

The stomach is used partly as a food material, partly as sausage 
casing, and partly for technical purposes. Thus, beef paunch is 
used in making tripe ; the fourth stomach, as an additional element 
in making liver sausage ; and, in southern Germany, the stomach of 
the hog is used as a casing for the so-called schwartenmagen. In 
addition to these uses, pepsin is obtained from the stomach of hogs, 
and, from the stomach of calves, rennet is obtained for the manu- 
facture of cheese. 

Weight of the contents of stomach and intestines. — The weight of 
the stomach contents is not infrequently the subject of controversy, 
when animals are sold according to live weight. The buyers pre- 
suppose an honest delivery ; i.e., there is a tacit understanding that 
animals which are offered for sale shall receive fodder only up to a 
certain hour, which varies from 3 to 6 P. M. of the day preceding 
slaughter. The following figures may serve for deciding differences 
of opinion which may arise. 

According to Wolf, the relation between the weight of the con- 
tents of the stomach and intestines, as well as that of the empty 
stomach and intestines, and the live weight in fasting animals, is as 
follows : 

(a) Oxen. 

(a) Moderately fat — Per cent. 

Contents of stomach and intestines 18.0 

Stomach without contents 4.5 

Intestines without contents 2.0 

Total 24.5 

(b) Half fat— 

Contents of stomach and intestines „ 15 . 

Stomach without contents 3.0 

Intestines without contents . , 1.5 

Total 19.5 

<c) Mal- 
contents of stomach and intestines 12.0 

Stomach without contents 2.7 

Intestines without contents 1.4 

Total 16. 1 



170 ArPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

(b) Calves. 
Fat— 

Contents of stomach and intestines 7.0 

Stomach without contents 1.2 

Intestines without contents 2.4 

Total 10.6 

(c) Hogs 

(a) Moderately well fattened — 

Contents of stomach and intestines 7.0 

Stomach without contents 1.2 

Intestines without contents 3.9 

Total 12 1 

(b) Fat- 

Contents of stomach and intestines 5.0 

Stomach without contents 0.7 

Intestines without contents 2.2 

Total 7.9 

Hintzen (Zeit. f. Fleisch-u. Milchhyg. III.) found in fasting cows 
the average proportion of the weight of the stomach and intestines 
with contents to be 18.2 per cent. (15.5 to 22.7 per cent., the abso- 
lute weight varying between 146 and 244 lbs.) ; in calves, 9.4 per 
cent. (4.7 to 13.2 per cent., the absolute weight varying from 7 to 26 
lbs.) ; and in hogs, 7.6 per cent. (5.2 to 12.2 per cent., the absolute 
weight varying from 11.5 to 23 lbs.). 

A beef animal may increase in weight from sixty to ninety 
pounds by one meal. 

P. Falk determined the weight of the stomach and intestines in 
thirty-seven beef animals to be 16.35 per cent, of the live weight 
(varying from 9.4 to 25.2 per cent.). 

According to Dammann, the weight of the stomach contents in 
heavy hogs, which were fed for the last time between sixteen and 
twenty hours before slaughter with one to two pounds of barley- 
grits and clover, amounted to from 350 to 1,600 gin., while in ani- 
mals coming from some distance, and fed eighteen hours before 
slaughter, the stomach contents amounted to from three to five 
pounds or more. In one case (a hog), which was fed eleven hours 
before slaughter, the stomach contents weighed somewhat more 
than ten pounds. 

Spleen.— This is of different appearance in different animals. 
The size of the spleen is, however, subject to physiological varia- 
tions in the same animal. According to Masoin, the spleen attains 
its greatest volume about five hours after feeding. 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 171 

In the horse the spleen is flat, sickle-shaped, and, when just 
removed, of a bluish-violet color, which later becomes reddish- 
brown ; cut surfaces, intensive brownish-red, with scattered white 
spots ; about 45 cm. long and of a flabby consistency ; the borders 
are somewhat rounded; weight, 500 to 750 gm. The weight 
may increase considerably a short time after the digestion of a 
meal. 

Ox. — Form, an extended oval, flatly compressed ; length, 50 cm.; 
breadth, about 13 cm.; weight, about 1 kg. 

Schmaltz found the average weight of the spleen in twenty- 
eight animals .of more than 250 kg., dressed weight, to be 1 kg. 
(varying from 750 to 1,750 gm.). In thirty-three animals, of from 
200 to 250 kg., or less, dressed weight, the spleen weighed, on the 
other hand, only 0.6 kg., varying between 0.5 and 1 kg. 

The color and thickness of the spleen are not the same in male 
and female beef animals. In bulls and fattened steers, the spleen 
is of a reddish-brown color, rather firm and thick ; both surfaces 
are convex. In the cow, on the other hand, the spleen has a grayish- 
blue color, a flabby consistency and flat surfaces. Furthermore, in 
the spleen of bulls and oxen, the follicles are more apparent and of 
the size of hemp seed. In bulls and steers the borders of the spleen 
are moderately rounded ; in cows, on the contrary, sharp. 

The spleen of calves varies from reddish-brown to bluish-red, 
and has the same color in both sexes. It possesses moderately con- 
vex surfaces and rounded borders, and is of a soft, elastic consistency. 
The follicles do not appear especially plain. 

Sheep and goats. — The spleen has the same form as that of beef, 
animals, is reddish-brown, later becoming dark red in color. The 
surfaces and borders are rather strongly convex ; consistency, soft 
or slightly elastic ; weight, about 60 gm. 

Hog. — The spleen is tongue-shaped ; in color, a bright red, later 
becoming dark red, and of a flabby consistency. The follicles appear 
rather prominent. 

Liver. — The liver is also of different form in different domestic 
animals. 

Horse. — Three lobed ; the right is the largest ; the left, inter- 
mediate ; and the middle lobe, the smallest. The right lobe suffers, 
with increasing age, a physiological atrophy (pressure atrophy). 
The weight of the liver in old horses is from 3 to 4 kg.; in young 
animals, which have died during the process of stomach digestion, 6 
to 8 kg. 



172 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

Ox. — Form, indistinctly two-lobed. Near the lobus spigelii 
there is the lobus quadratus (tuberculum papillare). No esophageal 
notch; no middle sickle-shaped band; gall bladder of a pear 
shape. 

The weight of the ox liver without gall bladder is, on the aver- 
age, 4.5 kg. (about l-85th of the body weight). According to 
Schmaltz, the weight of the liver in cattle of more than 250 kg., 
dressed weight, averages 5.75 kg. (varying between 4.5 and 8 kg.). In 
cattle of 250 kg. or less, dressed weight, the liver weight is 4.8 kg., 
varying between 2.75 and 6 kg. The average weight of the liver in 
sixty-eight animals was l-52nd of the dressed weight. 

Sheep and goats. — Weight, 375 to 875 gm. (l-53rd of the body 
weight). On account of these variations in weight, dealers distin- 
guish between large and small sheep livers. 

Hogs. — The hog liver has four lobes, besides the spigelian and 
quadrate lobes and the gall bladder; weight, 1 to 2.45 kg. (l-40th of 
the body weight). The liver of the hog is distinguished by its large 
lobuli and the strongly developed interlobular connective tissue. 
Hog livers are, therefore, easily distinguished from calves' livers in 
cases of attempted deception. 

The following characteristics are common to the livers of all 
food animals : The bluish-ground color, which later becomes decid- 
edly reddish-brown ; the glistening appearance of the parenchyma ; 
the moderately firm consistency — while still retaining the animal 
heat the liver is considerably softer— and the absence of blood from 
the numerous larger veins on cross section. The borders of the liver 
are somewhat sharp. In calves and well-fattened young cattle, from 
one to four years of age, the liver is thick, the surfaces convex, and 
the borders slightly rounded. In young cattle, of from one-half to 
one year of age, and in old cows, the liver is thinner, the surfaces 
more even, and the borders sharp. In the latter cases, also, the 
consistency of the liver is flabby and the color a dark reddish- 
brown. 

Variations from the reddish-brown ground color (always appar- 
ent in bulls, old steers, poorly fattened sheep, and, in the majority 
of cases, also in hogs), occur in sucking calves, well-fattened young 
cattle and steers, as well as in very fat wethers and hogs. In the 
last-named animals, the liver is yellowish-brown and turbid, and of 
increased volume (greater thickness and rounded borders). The 
yellowish-brown color may appear upon the whole liver, as in calves 
and young steers, or may occur as a band around the periphery of 
the acini — fatty infiltration of fattened animals. In sucking calves 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 173 

a so-called transitory fatty infiltration is observed shortly after each 
sucking. . 

It is worthy of mention that the weight of the liver is subject 
to considerable variation, according as the animals are slaughtered 
during the process of digestion, or after a considerable period of 
fasting. For the elucidation of this relation I have made several 
test weighings, and have found differences of as much as 500 gm. in 
the livers of medium-sized hogs, fasting and fed with clover. Fur- 
thermore, the liver of fasting hogs is decidedly reddish-brown in 
color, while in animals killed during the process of digestion the 
yellowish color of the liver is never absent. 

Lungs. — The lungs do not require such a detailed description 
as the liver. The most essential characteristics of the normal con- 
dition of the lungs are the small blood content and the uniform 
elastic consistency. 

The healthy lungs of bled animals exhibit a rose-red color ; the 
surface is smooth and glistening. On the cut surface, a foamy sub- 
stance of a light reddish tinge may be rubbed off (residual air). 
After their removal from the thorax, healthy lungs collapse. Only 
in cases where the lungs remain for several hours after death in the 
unopened thorax do they exhibit an incomplete retraction. Butch- 
ers, therefore, in localities where inflation is forbidden, allow calves' 
lungs to remain as long as possible in the thorax in order to give 
them a more voluminous appearance. 

The distinction between the lungs of different domestic animals 
is of considerable importance, because deceptive substitutions, espe- 
cially of hog lungs for the more valuable calf lungs, are sometimes 
made. 

The lungs of horses possess a left, anterior and a posterior 
primary lobe, besides a pyramidal lobe to the right. 

The lungs of ruminants are more lobulated ; on the left, two to 
three ; on the right, four to five lobes. It should be remarked that 
the anterior lobe of the right lung of ruminants, in contrast with 
that of the horse, receives its bronchus independently from the 
lower end of the trachea. 

In the lungs of hogs, two to three lobes may be recognized on, 
the left, and three to four on the right. With the exception 
that in ruminants the interlobular tissues are more strongly de- 
veloped, the conditions in the lungs of hogs are similar to those in 
ruminants. 



174 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

The Heart. — The heart of all domesticated animals exhibits a 
brownish-red color, a smooth glistening covering (the epicardium), 
and a similar lining within (the endocardium). The consistency of 
the heart of healthy animals is firm. In the myocardium, on -jross 
section, a conspicuous sheen is observed and an extremely small 
l blood content. In animals which are thoroughly bled, the right 
and left ventricles contain only a small quantity of coagulated 
blood. The coronary veins are empty. 

The form of the heart is nearly round or conical, according as 
the heart movement came to a standstill in diastole or systole. 

In order to avoid errors, it is necessary to bear in mind that 
the tissue underneath the epicardium in freshly slaughtered ani- 
mals is often injected, and this condition should not be confused 
with hemorrhages (von Hofmann). This reddened condition is 
always observed at the level of the columnse carnese, and never 
in the intervening depressions. According to Hofmann, this is to 
be considered a vital phenomenon, which occurs at every systole 
and disappears again during diastole. The condition indicates, 
therefore, simply a cessation of heart action during systole. It 
should also be observed that the injected condition rapidly gives 
way to redness, caused by imbibition, when the heart is placed in 
water for the purpose of removing the blood contained in the 
chambers. True hemorrhagic conditions are frequently found in 
, the cardiac valves of fasting calves as a normal condition (Klager). 

The beef heart is distinguished by the fact that in the fibrous 
ring of the aorta two cardiac bones are found in the place of a car- 
diac cartilage. In hogs, the cardiac cartilage may become ossified 
in old age. 

According to Vaerst, a small bone on the right side is formed 

\ in sheep in old age ; in elk and deer this formation is observed on 

the right — not on the left ; in the calf, up to the fourth week, only 

1 cartilage is found. From this time on, however, the formation of 

the right cardiac bone begins. Lastly, in very old horses, a partial 

ossification of the cardiac cartilage may occur (Stoos). 

Kidneys. — The kidneys in most animals are concealed from 
immediate view by a more or less extensive fatty capsule, known 
as the kidney-fat capsule. In earlier times this condition was, 
strangely enough, the chief reason why the kidneys, as a rule, were 
not studied in meat inspection. The color of the kidneys is reddish- 
brown ; the consistency firm. The surface is smooth and glistening, 
and discloses numerous red spots (glomeruli), which, on cross- 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 175 

sectioning the kidneys, appear more conspicuously in the cortical 
layer. The renal parenchyma shows on the cut surface the same 
sheen as on the exterior surface. 

The right kidney of the horse is heart-shaped ; the left is bean- 
shaped. It possesses a renal papilla. Both kidneys of the horse 
weigh on an average about 1,500 gm. (1-300 of the body weight). 
Both kidneys of the beef are oval, but exhibit a lobulated structure. 
They consist of from fifteen to twenty lobes of different size, and 
partly grown together. Each lobe (renculus) has a renal papilla, 
and the two kidneys weigh on an average 952 gm. (about 1-300 of 
the body weight), but considerable variations occur. The kidneys 
of steers and bulls, as a rule, are heavier than those of cows. 

The kidneys of sheep and goats are bean-shaped, non-lobulated, 
and have one renal papilla each. 

The kidneys of the hog are likewise bean-shaped and non-lobu- 
lated, but are characterized by from six to eleven renal papillae. 
They weigh on an average 420 gm. (1-150 of the body weight). 

Physiological variations from the normal occur in the fattened 
condition, especially in very fat hogs, more rarely in cattle, and 
sheep. In these animals the color of the kidneys, in consequence of 
fatty infiltration of the convoluted and straight uriniferous tubules, 
may become grayish-brown and cloudy. Upon microscopical exam- 
ination, the epithelial lining of the tubules is found to be densely 
filled with large, fat globules. 

French investigators (Villain and Bascou) have asserted that 
the color of calves' kidneys undergoes such a typical change that 
it is possible to make use of it as a valuable aid in the determina- 
tion of the age of the animals. Villain and Bascou assert that at 
birth the kidneys are bluish-black ; at one week, violet-red , at two 
weeks, greenish-yellow ; and after three weeks, yellowish-red. This 
change of color, however, is not a regular occurrence. 

Pleura and Peritoneum. — These membranes are characterized 
in their normal state by their smooth, glistening, light-gray and 
transparent appearance. 

If, in slaughtering animals, blood makes its way into the pleural 
cavity, the pleura takes on a reddish tinge as a necessary conse- 
quence. This reddening is to be distinguished from inflammatory 
reddening by its superficial position, and by the fact that it can be 
removed by washing. The peritoneum may take on a green and 
yellow coloring in consequence of injuries to the gall bladder in 
slaughtering. 



176 APPEAKANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ANIMALS 

The Tongue. — In the tongue, the chief points of interest which 
concern us are the differences of form in the different animals, since 
on this basis we are in a position to detect substitutions. 

The beef tongue is distinguished from the horse tongue by its 
strong dorsal ridge, its more slender tip, and by its spine-like fili- 
form papillae, which are covered by a horny sheath, and are inclined 
backward, as well as by the larger number of circumvallate papil- 
lae (twelve or more on each side, as against two in the horse). Quite 
often the beef tongue bears black spots. 

The tongue of the sheep and goat is hollowed out in the median 
line at the tip. The filiform papillae are blunt and not corneous. 
In dark-colored sheep, the tongue is entirely black or spotted with 
black ; otherwise the conditions are similar to those in cattle. 

In hogs, the dorsal ridge is absent ; the filiform papillae are fine 
and velvet-like, with but two circumvallate papillae on either side. 

The tongue of the dog is flat, without lateral surfaces, but with 
lateral borders. The filiform papillae are situated in the anterior 
two-thirds, are closely crowded together, and the points are directed 
backwards. The dorsal surface is marked with a median groove. 
On the posterior surface, in the median line, is found a spindle- 
shaped body of cartilaginous consistency (the so-called lyssa). 

The other internal organs of slaughtered animals require no 
special discussion. A brief note, however, should be made concern- 
ing the secondary sexual organ, the udder. It has sometimes oc- 
curred that mammary glands filled with colostrum have been falsely 
declared to be' inflamed or modified by tuberculosis. A careful 
investigation should protect one against this error. 

(d) The Bones. 

The most important part of the bones, from the standpoint of 
sanitary police work, is the bone marrow. A distinction is usually 
made between red blood-forming marrow and the white, yellow or 
fat marrow. Red marrow is found in all bones of unborn or new- 
born animals. In the tubular bones of the extremities, which pos- 
sess a marrow cavity, the red marrow disappears after birth, and is 
replaced by a white or yellow, fat marrow. The red marrow re- 
mains, however, in all other bones, especially those of the skull, 
trunk (spinal column, ribs, sternum, pelvis), and in the scapula. 
Red-bone marrow is of a moderately firm consistency ; the fat 
marrow, on the other hand, has the soft consistency of fat. Neither 
red nor fat marrow exhibits such a fluid consistency as to flow out 



NORMAL APPEAEANCE 177 

of bones which have been artificially opened. This fact is of im- 
portance in the diagnosis of osteomyelitis and osteomalacia. This 
fluid consistency is not observed even in old animals, in which the 
fat marrow, as well as adipose tissue in other parts of the body, 
has partly disappeared and has been replaced by serous, infiltrated 
tissues. 

The total weight of the bones in well-fattened cattle amounts 
to from 15.1 to 15.4 per cent, of the dressed weight (compare page 
192). 

(e) The Lymphatic Glands. 

A correct knowledge of the normal condition and position of 
the lymphatic glands, as well as of the ramifications of the lymph 
vessels, is of the greatest importance to meat inspectors. The 
condition of lymphatic glands varies in different regions of the 
body, and in the same region in the different domesticated animals ; 
especially the size and color vary extremely. It is not strange that 
such sensitive structures as the lymph glands should be subject to 
certain fluctuations in size and water content. Considerable changes, 
or actual swellings, occur only during more intense irritation. 

The form of the lymphatic glands is round or oval, the size 
varying. Some are as small as a pea ; others are as large or larger 
than walnuts. The lymph glands of young animals, still in process 
of development, are uniformly larger than those of- older animals. 
As a rule, they lie pressed together. The color of the lymph glands 
is partly white, partly gray and gray-blue. In hogs the white color 
is predominant. A moderate quantity of fluid pours out on the cut 
surface of the lymph glands. The consistency is firm, rather than 
soft. In general, however, the splanchnic lymph glands possess a 
somewhat softer structure than the lymph glands of the trunk and. 
extremities. 

Each lymph gland has a certain region from which it receives' 
lymph through the lymphatic vessels. This relationship of lymph 
glands is expressed by the term " corresponding," signifying that 
the glands belong to a certain region. One region, however, may 
possess several corresponding lymph glands. It should be noted 
that no lymphatic vessel empties into the thoracic duct or the right 
lymphatic trunk without passing through at least one lymph gland. 
Furthermore, all lymphatic vessels of the different organs have 
their ramifications in the organs themselves. Communications 
between lymphatic vessels in one and the same region are mani- 



178 



ArPEAEANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 



fold. They are absent, however, between the lymphatic vessels of 
two anatomically separated organs. For instance, a connection 
between the lymphatic vessels of the alimentary tract and the 



Fig. 18. 



Fig. 19. 



cl — m 








Beef head, a, right, b, left submax- 
illary glands; c, retropharyngeal 
glands. 



Position of the most important lymphatic 
glands after removal of the retroperitoneal 
fat tissue, a, lymphatic glands above the 
hock ; b, popliteal glands ; c, superficial 
inguinal glands ; d, kneef old glands ; e and 
/, internal iliac glands ; g, lymphatic glands 
of the lower thoracic walls ; h, lower cervical 
glands; i, upper cervical glands; k, sub- 
maxillary glands. 



spleen does not occur, notwithstanding the widespread erroneous 
belief to the contrary. The lymphatic trunks, after leaving the 
corresponding lymphatic glands, pass directly to the thoracic duct 
without being distributed in any other organ. 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 179 

The following are the most important groups of lymphatic 
glands in meat inspection : 

(A) Lymphatic Glands of the Head, Trnnk and Extremities. 

1. The submaxillary lymphatic glands (Figs. 18, a and b ; 19, k). — 
These glands, according to Franck, whose description I have fol- 
lowed with reference to the other groups of lymphatic glands, 
receive all of the lymphatic vessels from the lower half of the head 
(cheeks, nose, mucous layer of the mouth and tip of the tongue, 
nasal mucosa and the hard gums). The efferent vessels pass to the 
upper cervical glands. 

2. The lymphatic glands, in the region of the parotid gland, pos- 
terior to the articulation of the jaw, partly inserted between the 
lobes of the parotid gland. Lymphatic vessels from the ear, the 
parotid gland, temporal region, and partly from the base of the 
skull. Efferent vessels to the upper cervical glands. 

3. Upper or cranial cervical lymphatic glands. — These glands lie 
on both sides of the posterior wall of the larynx and pharynx in the 
region of the thyroid gland (Fig. 19, i). A larger and highly impor- 
tant group, from the standpoint of meat inspection, the so-called 
retro-pharyngeal lymph glands (Fig. 18, c), is found in cattle on the 
posterior wall of the pharynx. Lymphatic vessels. from the cranial 
cavity, base of the skull, pharynx, larynx, diverticulum of the Eus- 
tachian tube, as well as the efferent vessels of the lymphatic glands 
which have already been mentioned. 

4. Middle cervical lymphatic glands, on the upper third of the 
trachea. 

5. Lower or caudal cervical lymph glands, lying immediately an- 
terior to the entrance to the thorax on the inferior wall of the trachea 
(Figs. 19, h ; 21, h). They receive the efferent vessels of the pre- 
scapula, as well as of the middle and upper cervical glands ; or, in 
other words, all of the vessels of the neck and head. Efferent duct 
on the right to the right lymphatic trunk, and on the left to the 
thoracic duct. 

6. Axillary glands. — A large cluster of lymph glands covered 
by the scapula and its musculature (therefore accessible only after 
removal of the scapula). Lymphatic vessels from the outer thoracic 
wall and the medial scapula surface. 

7. Prescapular or superficial cervical glands (Fig. 20, c), the loca- 
tion of which must be familiar to all who are acquainted with the 
subject, since they play a large part in the inspection of tuberculous 



180 APPEARANCE AND DIFFEBENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

animals. In the horse the prescapular glands form a cluster ; in 
cattle and hogs they are, on the other hand, isolated glands. Posi- 
tion, in front of the shoulder joint, covered by the origin of the 



Fig. 20. 



Fig. 21. 





Half of beef, seen from the outside. Half of beef, seen from the inside, a, super- 
a, popliteal glands; 6, kneefold ficial inguinal glands ; b, deep inguinal 
glands; c, prescapular glands. glands (of variable size and not always pre- 

sent) ; c, internal iliac glands; d, lumbar 
glands; e, renal glands; /, lymphatic glands 
of the inferior thoracic wall ; g, glands of 
the superior thoracic wall ; h, lower cervical 
glands. 

brachiocephalic muscle. They receive the lymph vessels from the 
superficial lymph glands of the neck, shoulder, arm and fore arm. 

There may be some difficulty in finding the prescapular glands 
in very fat hogs. To expose them, it is recommended that a deep, 
transverse incision be made through the skin from the inferior 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 181 

border of the neck to the nape, immediately in front of the shoulder 
joint. The prescapular glands then appear nearly in the middle of 
the incision (Lohoff). I 

8. Precrural or external subiliac glands, in the cutaneous maximus 
of the abdominal musculature (Figs. 19, d ; 20, b), at the anterior 
border of the tensor fasciae lata?. Lymph vessels from the anterior 
part of the thigh and from the outer abdominal wall. The efferent 
vessels pass to the lumbar glands. 

In slaughtered hogs, the precrural glands are most easily found 
if the incision is made into the abdominal wall in front of the femoro- 
tibial joint, perpendicularly toward the spinal column (Fig. 19, d). 

9. Deep inguinal glands in the femoral canal, covering the femoral 
vessels. Afferent vessels from the popliteal glands, from the penis, 
as well as from the thigh. The efferent vessels pass to the lumbar 
: glands, and in part directly into the thoracic duct. 

In the horse, the deep inguinal glands, as stated by Harten- 
stein, are always easily found ; not so, however, in other food 
animals. According to Rieck, they are not wanting in other ani- 
mals, but, as a rule, are very small. Their position, according to 
the statement of Bieck, is at the point at which the external pudic 
artery arises at right angles from the femoral artery. 

10. The superficial inguinal glands in the male are placed at the 
meek of the scrotum, at the side of the penis (Figs. 19, c ; 21, a); in 
female animals they lie behind and above the udder (supramam- 
mary lymph glands). Afferent vessels from the outer external 
sexual organ, inferior abdominal wall, median femoral surface. 
Efferent vessels to the deep inguinal glands and immediately into 
ihe receptaculum chyli (beginning of the thoracic duct). 

11. Popliteal glands (Figs. 19, b ; 20, a) lie deep between the 
inner and outer sacroischiac muscles, immediately above the point 
of bifurcation of the heads of the gastrocnemius, muscle. These 
glands always become apparent by the dissection of the joint. All 
of the external lymph vessels of the posterior extremity empty into 
them. The efferent vessels pass to the deep inguinal and pelvic 
glands. 

In hogs, besides the popliteal glands, there are other glands 
varying in size from a pea to a hazel nut, in the panniculus adipo- 
sus of this region, but about a hand's breadth above the tuberosity 
of the calcaneum (Hartenstein). These lymph glands (Fig 19, a) 
are easily discovered only when they are inflamed or tuberculous. 



182 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEATS AND ORGANS 



(B) The Lymph Glands of the Thoracic, Abdominal and Pelvic Cavities* 



Fig. 22. 



(a) thoracic cavity. 

1. The lymph glands of the tipper thoracic wall (Fig. 21, g) t 
small and numerous ; lie partly at the side of the vertebrae, partly 
in the intercostal spaces. Afferent vessels from the dorsal verte- 
brae, the exterior muscles of the back, the intercostal muscles, and 

partly from the peritoneum and dia- 
phragm. Efferent vessels to the thor- 
acic duct. 

2. Lymph glands of the inferior 
thoracic wall between the articulations 
of the costal cartilages near the ster- 
num, small and few in number, follow- 
ing the course of the internal thoracic 
veins (Fig. 21,/). Afferent vessels from 
the rectus abdominis, the anterior sur- 
face of the diaphragm, and from the 
intercostal muscles.* The efferent ves- 
sels pass in part to the anterior media- 
stinal glands, in part directly into the 
thoracic duct and the right lymphatic 
trunk. 

3. Anterior mediastinal glands (Fig. 
22, b). — These lie between the folds of 
the anterior mediastinal membrane. 
They receive lymph from the heart, 
pericardium and diaphragm. Efferent 
vessels into the thoracic duct and right 
lymphatic trunk. 

4. Posterior mediastinal glands (Fig. 
22, b). — Lying under the aortic arch. 
Receive lymph vessels from the peri- 
cardium, the mediastinal membrane, 

esophagus, pleura, diaphragm, the anterior abdominal region, and 
from the anterior surface of the liver. Efferent vessels empty in 
part into the bronchial glands, in part into the anterior mediastinal 
glands, in part directly into the thoracic duct. 




o and a', bronchial glands ; b, 
anterior and posterior media- 
stinal glands ; c, portal glands. 



* The intercostal muscles can not be infected by translocation of tuberculous 
lymph from the pleura. Furthermore, the lymph vessels take their origin in thet 
intercostal muscles, and pass thence toward the pleura or mediastinal spaces. 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 



183 



5. Bronchial glands (Figs. 22, a, a'). — Lying on both sides of the 
trachea, at its point of bifurcation, are covered by the aorta, and, in 
fat animals, also by fat tissue. They may be exposed by a deep 
incision from above and outward to the point of bifurcation. Affer- 
ent vessels from the lungs and posterior mediastinal glands. Effer- 
ent vessels to the anterior mediastinal glands and thoracic duct. 

(b) abdominal and pelvic cavities. 

1. Lumbar glands (Fig. 21, d). — These lie near the lumbar ver- 
tebrae, in part covered by the lumbar muscles. Two groups of them, 

Fig. 23. 




Beef mesentery -with tuberculous lymphatic glands. 



"which lie on either side in the angle between the external iliac 
artery and the deep, circumflex iliac artery, as well as in the angle 
of both hypogastric arteries, are especially designated as the internal 
iliac glands (Figs. 19, e,f; 21, c). Afferent vessels from the pelvic 
organs, lumbar muscles and upper parts of the abdominal wall; 
also efferent vessels of the external iliac glands. The vessels of the 
lumbar glands empty into the thoracic duct. 

2. The external iliac glands are located near the lateral iliac 
angle, at the point of bifurcation of the deep, circumflex iliac artery. 
Afferent vessels come from the lateral and inferior abdominal wall 
and the lateral surfaces of the femoral region, as well as from the 



184: APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

external subiliac glands. The efferent vessels of the external iliac 
glands pass to the lumbar glands. 

3. The sacral glands on the inferior wall of the sacrum, near its 
lateral borders. Lymph from the superior pelvic wall, and in part 
from the rectum. Efferent vessels to the lumbar glands. 

4. The ischiatic glands in ruminants lie on the exterior portion 
of the ischiatic notch, outside of the pelvic cavity. Afferent vessels 
chiefly from the popliteal glands, and from the muscles of the sacro- 
coccygeal region. Efferent vessels empty into the sacral and lumbar 
glands. 

5. The 'portal glands of the liver (Fig. 22, c) lie in the porta 
hepatis, where they are concealed in fattened animals by adipose 
tissue. 

6. The lymph glands of the spleen are distinguished by their small 
size. They lie in the hilus of the spleen, in the gastrosplenic liga- 
ment, and, when the spleen is removed, usually remain upon the 
stomach. 

7. The lymph glands of the Mdneys (Fig. 21, e) lie in the hilus. 

8. The mesenteric glands (Fig. 23) lie between the folds of the 
mesentery on the concave arch of the intestines, and are in part 
small and round, and in part larger and somewhat elongated. In 
ruminants and hogs a very long mesenteric gland is found on the 
small intestine. Besides this, there is in hogs still another group 
of small, round lymph glands on the peritoneal attachments of the 
mesentery. 

(f) The Adipose Tissue. 

General discussion. — Adipose tissue is not a special tissue, but 
represents a modification of other tissues (connective tissue, bone 
marrow, muscle fibers) into adipose tissue. This modification plays 
a very important role in food animals. It is a result which is striven 
for in fattening, and the degree of its development indicates in most 
animals (cattle, sheep and hogs) the so-called slaughter maturity. 
The absence or disappearance of adipose tissue is, under certain 
conditions, an important criterion for the sanitary decision con- 
cerning existing pathological conditions. Adipose tissue develops 
in the majority of fattened animals, as also in man, especially in 
certain locations (fat depositories). The fat depositories include 
the fatty capsule of the kidney, the mesenteries, omentum, sub- 
cutaneous, retroperitoneal and intermuscular tissues, liver and 
bone marrow. 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 185 

Adipose tissue and fattened condition. — According to the extent 
and development of adipose tissue, distinction is made between 
poor, fattening, partly fattened and completely fattened animals. 

Poor animals show the presence of fat only in the renal cap- 
sules, and between the layers of the mesentery and omentum. In 
fattening animals, adipose tissue is also found in the subcutis, up to 
the dorsal surface, from the shoulder girdle to the rump, and in the 
superior third of the thorax. In bulls there is usually a deposit of 
fat in the scrotum, and in young cows in front of the udder (so-called 
fore udder). 

In partly fattened animals, a greater quantity of adipose tissue 
is manifested in superficial area, as well as in thickness, in those 
parts of the body which have just been mentioned. 

In completely fattened animals, the renal capsule is distended 
with fat, the adipose tissue attaining a thickness of several centi- 
meters. Layers of the mesentery are forced apart by a strong 
development of adipose tissue which conceals the mesenteric glands 
from view. Adipose tissue is found under the peritoneal covering 
of the stomach and alimentary tract. The omentum, like the peri- 
cardium, is no longer a thin transparent membrane, but an opaque 
membrane of considerable thickness. The liver loses its glistening, 
red-brown appearance, and becomes cloudy in spots or over its 
entire surface, while an increase in size is perceptible in the whole 
organ and especially on the borders. The subcutis throughout the 
body and the upper portion of the extremities is filled with fat. 
The development of fat is especially noticeable on both sides of the 
spinal column. The prominent parts of bones are no longer to be 
seen or felt, while all hollows and depressed areas are filled out 
with adipose tissue. In the interfibrillar connective tissue of the 
musculature fat cells are arranged in linear series. Probably these 
are the cells which furnish the delicate taste of the meat of fattened 
animals. In the highest grade of fattening, besides being apparent 
in the locations already mentioned, fat also occurs in the connective 
tissue under the pulmonary pleura, in the kidneys (convoluted uri- 
nary tubules), and even in the muscle fibers in the anatomical con- 
dition of fatty metamorphosis. 

Concerning histological changes during fattening, Grawitz com- 
municated some very interesting facts. Fattening produces in nor- 
mal adipose tissue an active cell proliferation. For the fat cell, 
according to Grawitz, is not simply a large cell, but a " cell colony," 
consisting of a considerable number of flattened, round, or spindle- 
shaped cells which become united with the membrane of the growing 



186 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ANIMALS 

fat cell. The bone marrow is likewise transformed during fattening 
into the status adiposus. " In the muscles, an invasion of fat between 
the muscle fibers takes place, whereby the muscle fibers disappear; 
but the fat of red meat is realty muscle tissue which has lost its 
contractility, and, like connective tissue and bone marrow, has 
become modified into the form and appearauce of ordinary adipose 
tissue." In several different conditions, in which the muscles were 
not used, Grawitz observed that individual strands of spindle-shaped 
cells from muscle fibers were disintegrated, and that from these fat 
cells colonies arose in the same manner as from the cells of connec- 
tive tissue and bone marrow. 

Means of judging the degree of fatness. — Iu judging the degree of 
fatness of food animals, butchers habitually feel of certain parts. 
These manipulations are known as "feeling." 

In cattle, butchers preferably test the development of adipose 
tissue by the "upper feeling" in the ischiac region, the outer angles 
of the ilium, false ribs, behind the scapular groove on the back, in 
the orbital groove, and also by the "under feeling" on the shoulder 
joint, in the kneefold, on the scrotum, on the scrotal raphe in cas- 
trated animals, and on the so-called fore udder in cows. 

In calves, the butcher investigates the fold between the external 
ear and the processus mastoideus for the purpose of determining 
the development of adipose tissue. In older animals attention is 
given to the scrotum and udder. 

In hogs, the trachea, larynx, back, the so-called shield, under 
surface of the abdomen, external angles of the ilium, and the root 
of the tail are inspected. 

In sheep, the fold between the base of the tail and the ischiatic 
tuberosity is used in judging the development of adipose tissue. 

Anatomy and physiolagy. — For the peculiarities of fat of various 
origin, compare the section on the differentiation of meat of differ- 
ent domestic animals. In this connection only the general charac- 
teristics of normal adipose tissue will be given. Normally, adipose 
tissue is opaque, white, or yellow, poor in blood, and of an acinous 
structure on cross-section. The consistency varies according to the 
melting point of the different fats, and according to the surrounding 
temperature. For instance, both beef and mutton tallow harden 
even in summer. Adipose tissue, which has become pathologically 
changed, loses its original color, and especially its acinous 
structure. 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 187 

The adipose tissue of calves and of old animals shows varia- 
tions from the normal condition just described. Calves have fat 
only around the kidneys. The fat of young calves, up to two weeks 
of age, is characterized by a light grayish-red color. The adipose 
tissue of fasting calves disappears very readily, and is replaced by 
a gelatinous tissue. Pare white, hard fat appears in the renal cap- 
sules of calves in a fat condition at the age of four to six weeks. 
Later, after from five to sis months, the fat in calves disappears 
again. In old animals, especially old cows, only the remnants of 
adipose tissue are found in the locations where fat is ordinarily 
deposited, and more frequently a serous, infiltrated, yellow, gelatin- 
ous connective tissue takes its place. 

Influence of feed on fat — The formation of fat, in the first place, : 
is dependent upon the nutrition of food animals. Liberal quantities 
of protein, properly balanced with fats and carbohydrates, greatly 
favor the process of fattening. It is worthy of notice that the for- 
mation of fat depends to a great extent upon the method of feeding, 
provided we overlook certain racial peculiarities ; for example, those 
of Hungarian hogs. The adipose tissue of pasture-fattened cattle is 
decidedly yellow — so-called yellow feed-coloring. In hogs, also, a 
slight coloration of the fat is occasionally observed, and is attributed 
to liberal dieting on maize. Furthermore, it is a well-known fact 
that in hogs the firmness of the adipose tissue varies according to 
the kind of feed which the animals receive. Milk, potatoes and 
barley produce the best bacon. It is thick, firm, marbled and 
palatable. Maize can be used for fattening hogs without any 
injurious effects. As soon, however, as the animals attain the 
weight of 120 pounds, feeding with maize should cease, because, 
otherwise, the bacon becomes soft (results of Danish investigations). 
A defect in the taste of bacon is noticed in hogs which have been fed 
oats and beans to excess ; in the first, a slightly oily, and in the 
second, a slightly bitter taste, is noticeable. The fat of hogs which 
have been fattened on beech nuts acquires an oily character and a 
slight taste of beech nuts. In fattening with rice-meal, or distillery 
refuse of corn, the bacon becomes soft, is easily separated, and of a 
disagreeable taste. Hogs raised on swill develop a very bad quality 
of bacon. It is soft, oleaceous, and of a flat, disagreeable taste. 
Swill contains a large quantity of rancid fat. Hogs which are fed 
with herring or smelt develop a rank-smelling, gray-colored adipose 
tissue which hardens but slightly. The same modifications may 
occur in the meat of cows fed on herring cakes. According to all 



388 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

experience, it is the excess of a particular kind of fat in the feed 
which exercises the above described injurious influence upon the 
quality of adipose tissue. 

The experiments of Lebedeff are in agreement with this state- 
ment. This author allowed a dog to fast for a month, or until it 
had completely lost all its body fat, and then fed it for three weeks 
on meat, which was almost free from fat, and linseed oil. From the 
tissues of the dog more than 1 kg. of a volatile, fatty oil was obtained 
which did not become hard at a temperature of 0° C. In its chemi- 
cal properties it closely resembled linseed oil. From the muscula- 
ture and adipose tissue of another dog, which had been fed on 
mutton tallow, Lebedeff succeeded in obtaining a fat which was 
almost identical with mutton tallow. Lehmann demonstrated that 
even from the feeding of small quantities of fat a partial deposition 
of the food fat took place without change, provided a certain kind of 
fat was fed for several months. Lehmann fed two hogs from July 
10 to February 3 on the same basal ration, the second hog receiving 
in addition a quantity of olive oil not exceeding the fat content of a 
normal feeding stuff, such as corn. In all, hog No. 2 received 15.36 
kg. olive oil, together with 394.6 kg. barley, 18,4 kg. meat meal and 
12.8 kg. clover. While the iodin number of the fat of hog No. 1 
varied in different parts of the body between 52.9 and 58, the iodin 
number of hog No. 2 varied from 58.1 to 62.5. From these results 
Lehmann computed that in all 7.37 kg. of olive oil, the iodin number 
of which was 82.65, passed over into the fat of hog No. 2. 

Commercial significance of fat in slaughtered animals. — Fat animals 
bring better prices than poor ones for two reasons : First, because 
of a better, closer relation between the dressed weight* and live 
weight than in poor animals, and, secondly, because the meat of fat 
animals possesses a better flavor than that of poor animals. 

Thus, in cattle, the difference between the live and dressed 
weight varies, according to the condition of the animal, between 40 
and 65 per cent.; in fat and poor sheep, between 45 and 65 per cent.; 
and in fattened and fattening hogs, between 15 and 25 per cent. 

Thus, Lawes and Gilbert found that, on an average, the dressed 
weight constituted the following percentages of the live weight : 
Fat steers, 59.8 ; fat calves, 63.1 ; poor sheep, 53.4 ; very fat sheep, 
64; fat hogs, 82.6. 

* By dressed weight in cattle is understood the weight of the four quarters. 
From the live weight there is subtracted the weight of the blood, skin, head, feet and 
entrails, with the exception of the kidneys. (Compare page 190.) 



NOKMAL APPEARANCE 189 

Hengst calculated the average dressed weight, from statistics 
obtained in the cattle yards of Leipsic during a period of three 
years (1889-1891), as follows: Steers, 53.4; heifers, 55.9; cows, 
48.4; bulls, 54.3. In the year 1898: Steers, 53.6; heifers, 51.3; 
cows, 50.8 : calves, 69 ; sheep, 53 ; hogs, 86.5 per cent. 

In weighings of eighty-eight well-fattened cattle, made by the 
German Agricultural Society in the army meat conserve factories at 
Mainz and Haselhorst, the highest dressed weight was 63.3 per 
cent, of the live weight. Incidentally, the animal which showed 
this high dressed weight was affected with generalized tuberculosis- 
In the meat markets of Berlin, it is customary to deduct 20 per 
cent, of the live weight, where hogs are sold according to dressed 
weight. 

Average Absolute Dressed Weights. 
By taking the average of dressed weights during the three years, 1889-1891, 
Hengst determined the following absolute dressed weights : 

Kilograms. 

Steers 365 

Bulls 354 . 1 

Cows 276.3 

Heifers 263 . 6 

Calves 38.8 

Sheep 27.6 

Hogs 88.8 

In 1898 : 

8,984 steers 379 . 10 

915 heifers. 251 . 38 

6,868 cows 284. 13 

2,227 bulls 374 . 58 

511 calves 42.06 

2,528 sheep 28.43 

14, 991 hogs 90 . 72 

The average live weight in Leipsic in 1898 was : 

983 steers 705.04 

104 heifers : 489.52 

485 cows 559.42 

530 bulls 645.78 

786 calves 61.35 

481 sheep.. ,. 53.88 

490 hogs..... 104.56 

Kleinschmidt, in Erfurt, calculates dressed weight as follows : 

Steers and bulls 350 

Cows and cattle 275 

Calves 28 

Sheep and goats „ 25 

Hogs 85 

Horses . 200 



190 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

Goltz, in Halle, as follows : Kilograms 

Steers and bulls 404 

Cows and heifers 310 

Calves 33 

Sheep and goats 28 

Hogs 115 

Horses 305 

Bieck, in Zwickau, as follows : 

Steers. , 336.9 

Heifers 294 . 7 

Cows 311.4 

Bulls 375 . 5 

Farm hogs 89 . 9 

Bacon hogs , 98.9 

Calves 34.8 

Sheep 26 . 4 

Ruser, in Kiel, as follows : 

Cattle : 240 

Calves 35 

Sheep 21 

Hogs 85 

Horses 230 

Bulesfor the determination of dressed weight. — For a simple means 
of estimating the value of animals at slaughterhouses, the conference 
of delegates of German Slaughterhouses and representatives of the 
German Agricultural Commission, as well as representatives of meat 
and cattle dealers, in session in Berlin, November 6th and 7th, 1895, 
decided, essentially in accordance with the suggestions of Hengst, 
to establish, as a basis, a dressed weight estimated according to 
fixed principles. 

The calculations of the dressed weight shall be made in the 
following manner : 

Sec. 1. Before the calculation of the weight, the following parts of animals are 
to be excluded : 

I. — In cattle : 

(a) The skin, but in such a manner that no meat or fat remains iipon it. The 
tail is to be removed, but the so-called caudal fat must not be taken away. 

(b) The head, between the occipital bone and the first cervical vertebra, per. 
pendicularly to the vertebral column. 

(c) The feet. In the first (lower joint of the carpus and tarsus), above the 
so-called shin bone. 

(d) The organs of the thorax, abdomen and pelvis, with the attached fat 
masses (heart fat and mediastinal fat), with the exception of the kidneys 
and surrounding fat, which must be included in the weight. 

(e) The blood vessels along the spinal column and in the interior portion of 
the thoracic cavity, together with the attached tissues, as well as the 
trachea and the tendinous portion of the diaphragm. 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 191 

(f) The spinal cord. 

(g) Penis and testicles, excepting, however, the so-called scrotal fat in bulls ; 
the udder and fore udder in dry cows, and cows pregnant beyond the half 
term. 

II. — In calves : 

(a) The skin, together with the feet, in the lower joint of the carpus and 
tarsus. 

(b) The head, between tne occipital bone and the first cervical vertebra. 

(c) The organs of the thoracic, abdominal and pelvic cavities, with the excep- 
tion of the kidneys. 

(d) The navel and the external sexual organs of bull calves. 
III. — In sheep : 

(a) The pelt, together with the feet, in the lower joint of the carpus and. 
tarsus. 

(b) The head, between the occipital bone and the first cervical vertebra. 

(c) The organs of the thoracic, abdominal and pelvic cavities, with the excep- 
tion of the kidneys. 

(d) The external sexual organs of bucks and wethers, and the udder of ewes. 
IV. — In hogs : 

(a) The organs of the thoracic, abdominal and pelvic cavities, together with 
the tongue, trachea and esophagus ; with the exception, however, of the 
kidneys and peritoneal fat. 

(b) The external sexual organs of boars. 

Sec. 2. The calculation of the weight shall be as a whole, in halves, or in quar- 
ters in cattle ; as a whole in calves and sheep, and as a whole, or in halves, in hogs. 

Sec. 3. If the determination of the dressed weight is made in cattle inside of 
twelve hours, and in other animals within three hours after slaughter, one pound, 
(i kg.) is to be subtracted from every 50 kg. as so-called warm weight. 

Sec 4. For every determination of dressed weight, a weight certificate is to be 
given on request, upon which the words " Dressed weight " shall be written. 

Market quotations for food animals. — The Ministries of Agriculture, 
Public Domains, Forests, Commerce, Manufactures and Interior, of 
the Kingdom of Prussia, under date of July 9, 1900, issued a general 
decree concerning the quotation of prices for food animals in the 
larger meat markets for the purpose of rendering the prices uni- 
form. Tha quotations must be made from dressed weight or live 
weight, according to local custom. If both forms are in use, a 
separate quotation must be made for each. The desirability of 
quotation according to the live weight is doubted, since the dressed 
weight, corresponding to the actual value of the animal, varies con- 
siderably, even in the same stage of fattening : (in well-fattened 
hogs, for example, between 77.7 and 90.2 per cent.). Furthermore, 
the live weight is very differently affected by transportation, and the 
quality of the meat can not be judged in the living animals. 

Nutritive value of the meat of fat and poor animals. — According to a 
large number of chemical analyses (see Konig, " Chemische Zusam- 



192 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

mensetzung der menschlichen Nahrungs-und Genussmifctel "), the 
meat of fat auimals is distinguished by a smaller water content in com- 
parison with the meat of poor animals. As maintained by Schmidt- 
Mulheim, however, the decrease in water content is not conditioned 
by a decrease of the muscle water which would correspond to an 
increase of the muscle protein, but chiefly through the deposition 
of fat. The relative protein content of meat is lessened by the 
increase in fat, as appears from the following statement of Konig. 
The figures were obtained as averages of a large number of 
analyses : 

1. Meat of very fat steers : "Water, 53.05 ; protein, 16.75 ; fat, 
29.28. 

2. Meat of moderately fat steers : Water, 72.03 ; protein, 20.96 ; 
fat, 5.31. 

3. Meat of poor steers : Water, 76.37 ; protein, 20.71 ; fat, 1.74. 
Fat meat is consequently poor in protein, and, therefore, really 

of less food value than poor meat ; for fat, especially the fat of 
cattle, is much cheaper than protein. This fact, however, is without 
influence upon the market value of meat. The meat of fat animals 
is preferred because it possesses more tender fibers, and, as stated, 
a more agreeable taste than that of poor animals. The most valu- 
able meat, however, is that of moderately fat animals, since it com- 
bines a good taste with a high protein content. 

(g) The Skeletal Musculature. 

General discussion. — The skeletal musculature is the most 
important part of the body of food animals. It furnishes the 
meat of commerce, and with it the fat tissues, which inclose and 
penetrate the muscles, the nerves which are connected with the 
muscles, vessels, lymphatic glands and bones are included. 

According to Lawes and Gilbert, the proportion of pure muscle 
meat is found to be 45.5 per cent, in a fat calf ; 47.9 in a half-fattened 
steer ; 40.2 in a fat steer ; 36.9 in a fat lamb ; 37.5 in a poor sheep ; 
38.4 in a half-fattened sheep ; 29.8 in a fat sheep ; 47.6 in a poor hog, 
and 37.3 in a fat hog. The remainder is to be reckoned as skin, 
entrails, fat and bones. The bones constitute a considerable portion 
of the body weight, a larger proportion in poor than in fattened 
animals. In poor cattle, for example, they constitute one-eighth of 
the weight ; in fat cattle, on the other hand, only one-fourteenth. 

Concerning the weight of the individual parts of well-fattened 
cattle, careful investigations were made by the German Agricultural 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 193 

Society in the army conserve factories at Mainz and Haselhorst, 
near Spandau. These studies were made from eighty-three animals 
selected from different races, and the following results were obtained : 
A racial difference in the dressed weight was found only in certain 
unimportant points. This was particularly true of the skin. High- 
land breeds have a somewhat heavier skin than lowland German 
cattle. The average weight of the skin in the former was 48.3 kg., 
or 12.7 per cent, of the dressed weight; in the latter, 46.4 kg, or 
11.1 per cent. It also appeared that lowland cattle had a higher 
percentage of intestinal fat, kidney fat and tallow than highland 
breeds (intestinal fat in lowland cattle, 9.6; in highland breeds, 
7.02 ; kidney fat and tallow, 6.95 and 5.2 per cent., respectively). 
It appears, however, that this difference is due less to racial pecu- 
liarities than to the method of fattening and the different ages of 
the animals. The differences with reference to the bones are quite 
insignificant (mountain animals, 15.4; lowland, 151 per cent.). In 
the first observations, the striking fact appeared that the fore quar- 
ters were heavier than the hind quarters, while in slaughter tests, 
which took place during the fat-animal exhibit in Berlin, the hind 
quarters were uniformly considerably heavier than the fore quarters. 
This is probably explained by the fact that the cattle in Berlin were 
in better condition and showed a larger quantity of kidney fat- 
Heretofore, opinions have been • much divided on the question 
whether the hind quarters or fore quarters had the greater weight., 
of bones. This question was, therefore, considered, and in one o£ 
the animals which was studied, and in which the two quarters 
weighed exactly the same, 194 kg., it was found that the loin roast 
weighed 17.75 kg.; the fillet, 9.75 ; the remainder of the meat, 270;, 
the waste in meat and fat tissue, 9.30 ; kidney fat, 25 ; the bones 
of both fore quarters, 31.80; and the bones of both hind quarters,, 
24.50 kg. 

In meat furnished to troops, there may be present the following 
weights of bone after cooking : Iu 100 kg. of raw beef, not more 
than 11 kg.; in 100 kg. of raw mutton, not more than 13 kg.; in 100 
kg. of raw pork, not more than 9 kg.; in 100 kg. of raw veal, not 
more than 18 kg.; and in 100 kg. of lean rib bacon, not more than 
2 kg. 

" Meat" and animal materials in a raw state. — In a broader sense, 
the entrails are also considered as meat. The Reichsgericht, in a 
decision of November 4, 1889, held that under the term, "meat in 
general," the stomach, intestines, and all parts of food animals, 



194 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

which are in any way used as food in commerce should be included, 
while the term, "raw animal materials," should be understood to 
mean only such substances of animal origin as are worked over for 
industrial or technical purposes, but which are not used for food. 

Histology. — The histological components of skeletal musculature 
are the striated muscle fibers, which consist of sarcolemma and the 
contractile contents, and also the inter and intramuscular connect- 
ive tissue. In the contractile content of the muscle fiber highly 
characteristic phenomena are observed after death, which distinctly 
separate muscle tissue in its physical and chemical relations from 
the other tissues of the animal body. 

Physical characters of striated musculature. — The muscles of freshly 
slaughtered animals exhibit active contractions. The color is dark- 
red (hemoglobin). There are, however, pale muscles.* The consist- 
ency is firm, but yielding. Fresh muscles, which are still capable 
of reacting, are characterized by a glistening appearance. 

This condition does not persist very long. After a short time 
certain groups of muscles, the head and neck muscles, become stiff 
(muscle rigor). Other muscles follow these, until finally the whole 
musculature and the joints become inflexible, stiff and firm {rigor 
mortis). At the same time, the muscles become turbid and opaque. 
All these phenomena are produced by the coagulation of the myosin, 
in consequence of the formation of lactic acid in the muscles. The 
coagulation of the myosin causes what was not observable before, 
namely, the appearance of muscle serum on sections of the muscles. 

The beginning and duration of rigor mortis are subject to con- 
siderable variations. Very strong muscle contraction before death 
(for example, in cases of tetanus, strychnine poisoning, etc.) causes 
a rapid and intensive rigor (Landois). Wild animals, hunted to 
death, pass into rigor mortis within a few minutes. Among drugs, 
veratrin, alcohol, ether and the etherial oils favor the early appear- 
ance of rigor mortis. In general, the time for the appearance of 
rigor mortis varies from ten to fifteen minutes to several hours 



* Pale muscles are well developed in mammals, especially in the rabbit and hog. 
The calf has white meat up to the sixth month. In grown cattle, the skin (superficial) 
muscles are partly pale. Furthermore, pale muscles are often found in connection 
with red muscles in fish and birds. The fibers of pale, muscles, according to Ranvier, 
are thinner and more closely striated ; but the longitudinal striations are less distinct 
than in red muscle fibers. According to Griitzner, there are pale fibers in nearly 
every muscle. 



NOEMAL APPEAKANCE 195 

after death. Du Bois-Keymond demonstrated that boiled muscles 
do not pass into rigor mortis. This is to a certain extent the case 
in hydremic cachexia ; also in septicemia and swine erysipelas 
(Hertwig). 

Rigor mortis persists for from one to several days. As a rule, 
the rigor passes off first in those animals in which it appeared 
earliest. Muscles in rigor become softened again in consequence 
of an increased formation of acids which dissolve the myosin. 

With reference to rigor mortis in fish, Ewart stated that it 
appears earlier and more intensively in muscles which were more 
vigorous and capable of stimulation. Furthermore, a close connec- 
tion is demonstrated between the cessation of rigor and the begin- 
ning of decomposition. If the contents of the intestines be removed 
and disinfectants applied, the condition of rigor may be maintained 
for almost any period. In cases where the brain and spinal cord 
are removed after death, the rigor persists considerably longer than 
in animals which are not thus mutilated. 

Of special interest is the power of muscles retaining the animal 
heat, and not in rigor to " fix " large quantities of water. This 
peculiarity is especially noticeable if pieces of muscle are previously 
pounded or torn into shreds. In this manner meat which is intended 
for use in the manufacture of sausages may be artificially increased 
by 70 per cent, of its weight of water. 

The influence of feeding on the physical properties of meat. — Butchers 
generally complain that the firm character of meat, especially in hogs, 
is becoming more and more rare on account of the extensive use of 
the by-products of manufacture in fattening. The best results, with 
regard to the condition of the meat, are obtained when hogs are fed 
with milk, barley and potatoes. Favorable results are also obtained 
when maize is substituted for barley.* The use of peas and other 
legumes in the place of barley is undesirable, since the meat takes 
on a bitter taste when legumes are used as the exclusive grain feed. 
Feeding clover is not to be recommended, for the reason that the 
meat becomes soft and of a loose texture. Very undesirable effects 
are obtained from the use of rice-meal. The meat becomes soft, 
spongy and of a disagreeable odor, and can scarcely be used for 
sausages (on account of its loose texture and paleness), or for pick- 



* In America, as well as in Hungary, maize is used almost exclusively in feeding 
hogs. The animals become heavier (fatter) than on a barley diet. The quality of the 
meat, however, is undoubtedly better when the hogs are fed on barley. . 



196 APPEATIANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

ling (on account of its oleaginous character). The same effects are 
produced by feeding distillery refuse of corn, and animal meal. 

Chemical peculiarities of striated musculature. — According to 
Konig the meat of poor steer beef, with a fat content of 1.74 per 
cent., contains about 20.71 protein and 76.37 per cent, water. For 
muscle meat with a fat content of 1 per cent., Voit gives as an average 
20 per cent, of proteids and gelatinous substances, together with 
75.8 per cent, of water. Besides proteids and fat, there are other 
important constituents of muscle meat, namely, the extractives, 
creatin, creatinin, sarcin, zanthin, and muscle salts. Among the 
latter, sarcophosphoric acid (Siegfried) plays an important part. 
This acid in neutral, slightly acid, or alkaline solution, holds phos- 
phoric acid in a fixed condition and, therefore, makes possible the 
simultaneous transfer of phosphoric acid, lime, and magnesium into 
the fluids of the body. According to Siegfried, one of the most 
important actions of meat broth and meat extracts depends upon, 
this fact. 

The potassium and sodium content of meat vary in different 
species of animals. The largest quantity of potash salts, with which 
the content in phosphate varies in a parallel manner, is found in 
fowls, 4.65 per cent., and the smallest in the eel, 2.41. Among food 
animals, pork is especially poor in potash salts, but rich in sodium 
salts. 

According to Landois, with the extractives belong osmazon, 
which gives meat its characteristic agreeable taste. The odor of 
meat depends on volatile fatty acids and differs with each sf)ecies of 
animals. (Compare "Differentiation of Meat of Different Food 
Animals.") 

The reaction of the musculature during life is neutral, but 
becomes acid (sarcolactic acid and volatile fatty acids) soon after 
death, according to Edelmann and Noack, within three to six hours. 
In animals slaughtered for sanitary reasons, the acid reaction may 
appear after two or three days, or later, or may entirely fail to 
appear, so that the musculature may remain neutral even to the time 
of the beginning of decomposition (Edelmann and Noack). The 
presence of acid causes the beginning of rigor mortis: The 
increase of acid content, however, brings about a cessation of 
this condition (the myosin is soluble in 0.5 per cent, lactic 
acid). Under the influence of putrefactive bacteria, the acid 
reaction of the musculature gradually becomes alkaline (presence 
of ammonia). 



NORMAL APPEARANCE 197 

According to Stinzing, carbonic acid constitutes from 15 to 18 
per cent, of the volume of the musculature ; oxygen is not present in 
muscles (Hermann). 

Rigor mortis, or the appearance of sarcolactic acid in the 
musculature, is of great culinary importance. Meat prepared for 
cooking immediately after slaughter is unsavory and so tough that 
it can be masticated only with the greatest difficulty. Meat in 
rigor, however, with an acid reaction, is tender and of good flavor, 
since comparatively low temperatures (60° to 70° C), in connection 
with the action of lactic acid, are sufficient to transform the inter- 
£brillar connective tissue into gelatine. The texture of the meat 
becomes loose and the individual fibres are readily separated in the 
stomach (Landois). 

Toughness of meat. — Lehmann demonstrated that the variation 
in the toughness of raw meat depends upon the difference in its 
content of collagen. In the apparatus used by Lehmann in his 
experiments, a weight of 1,040 gm. was required for biting off 
collagenous connective tissue (tendon) ; while for elastic tissue 
(ligamentum nuchse) a weight of only 580 gm. was required. 
Collagenous tissue, however, loses almost all of its firmness by 
cooking, while elastic tissue remains entirely unchanged. Therefore, 
meat which is rich in connective tissue becomes softer in cooking, 
while meat which is poor in connective tissue is not so affected. 
Thus, for biting through a fillet of beef before cooking, a weight of • 
■83.4 gm. was required, and after cooking a weight of 84 gm., while 
ior biting through dermal muscle of cattle, a weight of 236.4 gm. was 
required before cooking and 88 8 after cooking. 

Lehmann also made the interesting discovery that meat while 
hanging loses about 25 per cent, of its toughness through an acid 
fermentation in the course of a few days; 

Fitness of meat for the table. — True fitness of meat for fastidious 
palates is obtained by allowing it to remain in an ice chest or cold 
storage for two or three weeks. In this way, under the influence of 
sarcolactic acid, the meat becomes unusually tender and somewhat 
friable, without being exposed to the danger of decomposition. 
Similar results are obtained by placing meat in vinegar or sour milk. 

Under all circumstances decomposition during the ripening of 
meat for the table is to be avoided. Decomposing meat is not only 
disagreeable, but also an unhealthful food material. We must, 
therefore, characterize as very unappetizing and dangerous the fad 



198 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

of certain gourmands who, mistaking the nature of real "hautgout," 
regard decomposition as a necessary condition for palatable meat. 

"Hautgout." — According to W. Eber, genuine hautgout is not a 
decomposition, but a sort of acid fermentation which, possibly in 
connection with hydrogen sulphid, leads to the formation of a 
desired flavor. The acid fermentation finds favorable conditions in 
the meat of game from the fact that this meat, in spite of its high 
blood content, decomposes much less readily than the meat of 
domestic food animals. 

Of great importance for meat inspection is the reducing power 
which the musculature as well as other animal tissues possess. The 
experiments of Hermann, Ehrlich, Griitzner, and Gscheidlen, Hoppe- 
Seyler, and Eber have demonstrated the existence of a reducing 
property in the animal cell and the surrounding fluid. This is 
especially the case in the musculature. The reducing power of 
animal tissue is manifested in intoxications (transformation of 
poisonous into harmless substances during life), and in slight and 
serious cases of icterus (gradual transformation of bilirubin into 
colorless compounds through the living tissue (Eber). 

Meat as a nutrient medium for bacteria. — Finally, it should be 
remembered that muscle meat, in consequence of its chemical 
composition, offers not only a very suitable nutrient medium for 
putrefactive bacteria, but also for pathogenic micro-organisms. 
This property plays an important role in the post mortem intensifi- 
cation of the toxicity of the meat of diseased animals, as well as in 
the infection of meat through contact with diseased meat or through 
incidental carriers of contagion. Bocklart demonstrated that about 
thirty species of the bacteria with which he experimented developed 
very luxuriantly on meat. 

2.— Differ entation of the Meat of Yarious Food Animals. 

The expert is frequently called upon to give an opinion of tha 
species of animal from which a given piece of meat or meat product 
originated, for the substitution of cheap meat for the more expensive 
kinds frequently occurs. Thus, horse meat is sold for beef, goat 
meat for muttou, mutton for venison, dog meat for pork, cat meat 
for hare. Furthermore, it may happen that the less valuable 
buffalo meat may be marketed as beef and colt meat as veal. 



DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS 199 

Such substitutions are to be considered as violations of Section 
263 of the Statutes of Germany (Deception, see page 116). In this 
connection it is not the nutritive value of the substituted meat, but 
simply its market value which determines the matter. (Prussian 
Chamber of Justice, Decision V, 1810-1886.) The most frequent 
deception is the addition of horse meat to sausages. 

As a means of preventing the substitution of horse meat for 
beef, all regulations for meat inspection prescribe that horse meat 
shall be offered for sale only in certain market booths which are 
properly designated. In the same manner, it is required that 
authority be secured for a declaration of buffalo, goat, and dog meat 
for sale. 

For the differentiation of the meat of the various domestic 
animals, the following points should be considered : 

(a) Color, consistency, and odor of the meat and its content of 
adipose tissue. 

(b) Color and consistency of the adipose tissue, 

(c) The structure of such bones as are present. 

For the identification of horse meat, we may, furthermore, find 
valuable assistance in the demonstration of glycogen (Niebel), in the 
determination of the iodin number of the fat (Hasterlik), and of the 
fatty acids (Bremer), as well as in the determination of the refrac- 
tion number of the fat (Nussberger). 

(a) Color, Consistency, Odor and Fat Content of the Meat 
of Different Food Animals. 

Horses. — Horse meat in general has a dark-red color, which 
takes on a bluish sheen on the surface after lying for a long time. 
Klein called attention to the fact that horse meat darkens so rapidly 
in the air that its color, after a short time, appears to be almost 
black. Baranski noted the appearance of fasciae in horse meat. 
Furthermore, it is said that in cooking, and on the addition of 
sulphuric acid, a decided odor of the horse stable is developed 
(specific volatile, fatty acids). According to Baranski, the specific 
horse odor is given off from horse kidneys in every method of 
preparation for use. In cooking horse meat, moreover, the yellow 
oil globules which appear on the meat juice are conspicuous. 

Zundel, in his day, mentioned that, after treatment of samples 
of meat with sulphuric acid, the specific odor of the animal species 
was developed so plainly that the origin of the meat could be deter- 
mined with certainty from this fact alone. Leisering, however, was 



200 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEATS AND ORGANS 

unable to substantiate this assertion by experiment. In one case, 
■when Ziiudel's test was applied, buck meat was determined as pork. 
According to Puntigam and Halusa, however, the test with sulphuric 
acid is applicable in differentiating between buffalo meat and beef. 
If samples of beef and buffalo meat are cooked in water strongly- 
acidified with sulphuric acid, the odor of meat broth appears in the 
beef, while, in the buffalo meat, a stronger, disagreeable odor, recall- 
ing that of cattle dung, becomes noticeable. 

Cattle. — The color of beef varies according to the age in which 
the cattle are killed, and also according to sex. Young cattle, of six 
to fifteen months of age, have a light-red meat, with little fat, of fine 
flavor, and of rather firm, elastic consistency. Bulls, one and one- 
half to four years of age (they are'not commonly kept as bulls to a 
greater age), are characterized by their dark-red, tough, coarse- 
grained muscle tissue, which is poor in fat. Steers, one and one- 
half to six years of age, possess a light-red meat of moderately firm 
consistency, which becomes a brick-red when hung up, and which is 
strongly interlarded with fat (marbled). Older yoke oxen, on the 
other hand, which are fattened shortly before slaughter, possess 
darker, firmer and tougher meat than young steers. Furthermore, 
the meat is not interlarded with fat, but the fat is deposited for the 
most part under the skin, in the omentum and mesenteries, as well 
as in the region of the kidneys. The meat of fattened heifers and 
young cows is only slightly different from that of young steers. 
On the other hand, in older cows which have been milked one 
finds a lighter and firmer meat. Fat tissue in old cows is, as a 
rule, present in small quantities. In cases where it is exceptionally 
well developed, it is deposited in the same locations as in old 
steers. 

A faint, not disagreeable, specific odor is noticed in fresh beef. 
According to Baranski, the meat of cows is often tinted with a faint 
odor of milk or cow dung. 

In a fresh condition, buffalo meat is darker and more reddish- 
brown than beef. After cooling, it exhibits a pale-red color resem- 
bling that of young beef, and possesses a violet sheen on the 
freshly cut surfaces. Furthermore, buffalo meat has a coarse grain. 
Its broad and flat muscle fibers are held in contact by a loose con- 
nective tissue. The strictly muscular part of the superficial shoulder 
muscles in the buffalo forms a strip not wider than four fingers, 
while in cattle it is much wider. There is also always a striking 
musk-like odor in buffalo meat, which appears in cooking. In the 



DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS 201 

cooked condition, buffalo meat is tough, and less easily cut than torn 
(Puntigam and Halusa). 

Calf. — Veal is characterized by a light, pale red color, a fine 
but rather tough fiber. The meat of calves fattened on milk is 
conspicuously pale or pure white. The consistency varies accord- 
ing to age and degree of fatness. The odor is specific, and differs 
from that of beef. If veal is allowed to hang for a long time in the 
skin, as is customary for protection against drying, the meat takes 
on an acid odor (active formation of sarcolactic acid). The fat 
content of the muscles is minimal. 

The meat of immature calves — that is, those which are killed 
during the first week of life — is of a lighter color than that of older 
•calves of a higher water content, and of a softer consistency. The 
muscles, especially those of the hind quarters; are still only slightly 
developed, and the finger easily penetrates them. Rigor mortis is 
very inconspicuous. The adipose tissue, which is present, posessses 
a jelly-like consistency. The so-called double-loin calves, which are 
characterized by the enormous width of the chest, with an unusually 
voluminous development of the ischiac and femoral musculature 
(double loins), possess little fat and a dry, dark flesh (see Kaiser, 
Land, Jahrbucher). In the older double-loins, the meat appears 
almost " as black as in an old bull." 

Sheep. — The meat of sheep has a light-red or brick-red color, 
fine fiber, and moderately firm consistency. In well-fed animals an 
abundance of fat is found between individual muscles, especially, 
however, under the skin, and in the fatty capsule of the kidneys. 
Older breeding animals have a dark-red and firmer meat, with 
comparatively little fat. The odor of the meat of sheep is specific, 
comparable frequently with that of the rumen of those animals, 
often also with that of the sheep barn. The meat of bucks some- 
times possesses the so-called buck odor. 

Goats. — The meat of goats varies according to age, and is of a 
lighter or darker red color. The scarcity of fat under the skin and 
the disagreeable goat odor are characteristic. Goats become, accord- 
ing to popular terminology, " secretly fat"; that is, they possess a 
strongly developed fat capsule around the kidneys, in spite of the 
absence of the panniculus adiposus. The peculiar sticky character 
of the subcutis of goats brings it about that, in skinning these 
animals, hairs become attached to the meat, and serve as a certain 



202 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

means of detecting the origin of the meat. Goat meat, as has 
already been mentioned, is, like horse meat, to be declared as such 
on the market. 

Goltz suggests the following as a criterion for distinguishing 
between the meat of goats and sheep. Goats -are far less disposed 
to form deposits of fat than sheep. Furthermore, little fat is found 
under the skin of the thorax and abdomen in well-fed goats as com- 
pared with well-fed sheep, while the kidney capsule, even in poor 
goats, is surrounded by a thick layer of fat. The meat of young 
goats is light in color ; the dermal muscles of older goats are, how- 
ever, of a darker red than those of sheep. 

Mutton, when killed at not too great an age, possesses a sweet, 
slightly ammoniacal odor, which can be easily recognized by holding 
the nose close to the meat. In the meat of female goats the buck 
odor exists to but a slight degree, or not at all. 

Hogs. — The meat of fattened hogs is pale-red and rose color, in 
part white (pale muscles) ; strongly infiltrated and surrounded with 
fat ; fibers fine ; consistency soft ; odor not definable. Old breeding 
animals, boars and sows, possess a dark-red, firm meat, poor in fat. 
In such hogs the subcutis is most frequently free from fat. In older 
boars a thickening and induration takes place in that portion of the 
skin in connection with the subcutaneous tissue which lies over the 
thoracic region (formation of the so-called shield). In castrated 
animals and in cryptorchids, in which the testicles are not atro- 
phied, a highly repulsive urinous boar odor is to be noticed in the 
meat in a fresh condition and during cooking. 

In cooking, pork becomes white ; the meat of other animals, 
gray (disintegration of hemoglobin, which takes place at 60°-70° C.).. 

(b) Color and Consistency of Adipose Tissue. 

The consistency of fat tissue, and of the fat content in the 
tissue, is dependent upon its content of stearin and olein. A high 
stearin content gives fat a firm consistency and a high melting point. 
The character of the fat depends on the species of animal, and is 
also influenced by the kind of food material chiefly used. For 
this reason, the figures which are presented possess a qualified 
reliability. 

Horse. — The fat of the horse is light golden-yellow (subcu- 
taneous fat and kidney fat) or brownish-yellow (mesenteric fat), 
soft and oleaceous (a high content of olein). It begins to melt at a 



DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS 203 

temperature of 30° C. Rendered horse grease is white, and begins- 
to melt at 32° C. (96 per cent, olein). The fat of the bone marrow- 
is waxy yellow ; hardens in the air, and takes on a greenish sheem 
It melts at 65° C. In fattened and so-called mine horses, the whole- 
adipose tissue may become of a pure white color. 

Cattle. — The adipose tissue of young, fattened cattle is distin- 
guished by its white color and rather firm consistency after setting- 
Beef tallow sets very quickly, and is always solid at ordinary tem- 
peratures. It contains approximately one part of liquid to three 
parts of solid fat, and melts, according to Schulze and Reinecke, at 
from 41°-50° C. A yellow color is observed in the fat of young 
cattle when fattened exclusively on grass ; also in old animals, 
especially in old cows. In the latter the consistency of the fat 
becomes softer at the same time. Beef tallow may be recognized 
by a slight, peculiar, but unmistakable odor. 

Calf fat is at first reddish yellow- white, but later becomes pure 
white. It is much softer than beef fat. 

The fat tissue of the buffalo is of a striking white color, posses- 
ses a musk-like odor, and, when rubbed between the fingers, feels 
dry and somewhat sticky. The fingers do not become oily in 
rubbing, however, as is the case in beef tallow. The kidney fat in. 
the buffalo is usually but little developed, has a dull color, and 
shrinks very quickly on cooling (Puntigam and Halusa). 

Sheep. — The sheep possesses a beautiful white fat, with a 
melting point at from 31°-52° C. (content of solid fit variable ; on 
an average about 70 per cent.). Mutton fat is almost completely 
odorless. 

Goat. — Goat fat is similar in character to that of sheep. 

Hogs. — The fat tissue is white ; exceptionally, it is yellow (in 
corn-fed animals), or gray (fattened on fish). The consistency 
varies according to the food material (page 187), and according to 
the race of hogs. The Chinese and Hungarian fat hogs (so-called 
Bakony, Szalonta and Mangalicza hogs) possess an oily fat which 
sets with difficulty, while the pure English hogs and improved 
breeds of native hogs possess a firmer fat ; that of the latter breeds 
melts at from 42.50°-48° C. (62 .per cent, liquid fat). 

Dog. — Dog fat is characterized by its white color, oily consist- 
ency, and a pronounced specific odor. It melts at 22.5° C. 



204 ' APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

It is only in the natural state, and before rendering, that the 
peculiarities of fat offer really practical means for the determination 
of its origin. In the rendered condition, the color and melting 
point may be changed at will by mixture with the fat of other 
animals.* 

In conclusion, it should be noted that the varying consistency 
of fat in cattle, sheep, hogs and horses is dependent upon the part 
of the body in which it is deposited. Thus, for example, the scrotal 
fat of oxen melts at 43.5° ; kidney fat, on the other hand, at 50° C. 

According to analyses by Schulze and Reinecke, the subcuta- 
neous fat possesses regularly a lower melting point than that of the 
mesenteries, omentum and renal capsules. Thus, for example, the 
melting point of fat in a well-fattened Southdown-Merino wether 
was found to be 44.5° in the panniculus adiposus ; 48.5° in the 
mesentery; 49° in the omentum; 51.5° in the kidneys; in a well- 
fattened ox, 41° in the panniculus, 48° in the omentum, and 50° in 
the kidney fat. Similar differences were observed in the hog : pan- 
niculus, 46.5° ; kidneys, 47° ; intestines, 48°. 

(c) Character of the Skeleton. 

Concerning the differential characters of the bony skeleton of 
the different animals which come up for consideration in substitu- 
tions, we have the comprehensive work of Martin (Zeit. f . Fleisch-u. 
IMilchhyg., I), as well as Sussdorf's Lehrbuch der Anatomie, which 
gives especial attention to these points. For details, reference is 
here made to these works. . From the first-named work we select 
the following essential points with reference to the more important 
bones. 

Horses and Cattle. — In the first cervical vertebra of cattle 
the posterior foramen alaiium is wanting ; cervical vertebrae, 3 to 7, 
inclusive, are easily recognized in cattle by their shortness. The 
spinous processes of the anterior dorsal vertebrae of the horse are 
short in comparison with those of cattle, and are furnished with 
strongly developed summits. The spinous processes of the lumbar 
vertebras of cattle stand perpendicularly, and are separated from one 
another ; in the horse they are directed forward, and almost touch 
one another. The transverse processes of the lumbar vertebras in 
cattle are directed forward, and are never connected as the posterior 



* On the identification of rendered fat by the help of the iodin and refraction, 
numbers, see page 219. 



DIFFEBENTIATION OP MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS 205 

ones are in the horse. The sacrum in cattle is more decidedly 
arched than in the horse. The coccygeal vertebrae are shorter than 
those of cattle, and in cattle the spinal canal is closed in the first 
five ; in the horse, only in the first three. In cattle the ribs are 
flatter and broader in the middle and lower third than in the horse. 
In cattle the sternum is broad and flattened, while in the horse the 
anterior portion is keel-shaped. The scapula in cattle is decidedly 
triangular, the neck being thinner than in the horse. The humerus 
in cattle possesses two trochanters, in contrast with three in the 
horse. The external tuberosity, which is strong in the horse, forms 
merely a ridge in cattle. The radius in cattle is shorter and straighter 
than in the horse. The ulna in cattle is a distinct bone, while in the 
horse the body has almost entirely disappeared. The pelvis in 
cattle is narrower and longer in its posterior portion than in the 
horse. Furthermore, the ischiac tuberosity has three prominences, . 
while in the horse it has two. The neck of the femur in cattle is 
more constricted than in the horse. The trochanter major in cattle 
has grown together with the middle trochanter, while the trochanter 
minor is entirely wanting. In cattle, the head of the fibula is pres- 
ent as a small hook process on the tibia. In the horse, on the 
contrary, it is separate from the condyle. The trochlea of the 
astragalus stands straight in cattle ; in the horse it is turned 
obliquely outward. 

The bones of the buffalo are smaller and more easily broken 
than those of cattle. The tubular bones are shorter, their compact 
substance being thin and very brittle ; the ribs are considerably- 
broader and less curved than those of cattle. Consequently, the 
intercostal spaces appear strikingly narrow. On cross-section of 
the lower part of the ribs, the lateral costal surfaces in cattle appear 
biconcave, while in the buffalo they are more parallel to one another. 
/While in cattle the lower surface of the ischiopubic symphysis is 
convex, and the upper surface correspondingly concave, so that on 
cross-section it has the form of an arch, the upper and lower surface 
in the buffalo are plane, and the cross-section of corresponding form. 
The superior flat portion of the ilium is considerably broader, the 
exterior iliac spines are strongly directed outward, and, therefore, 
the pelvis appears to be much broader. The body of the ilium in 
the buffalo cow is much more strongly curved than in the domestic 
cow. The entrance to the pelvis, therefore, has more nearly the 
form of a circle, while in the cow it is elliptical and comparatively 
narrow. 



206 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

Sheep and Goats. — According to Martin, the bones of goats are 
distinguished from those of sheep by their slender form. Further- 
more, in the goat the majority of the processes are longer and with 
sharper angles than in sheep. In the goat, the first eight spinous 
processes of the dorsal vertebrae are bent backward rather decidedly. 
In the goat the twelfth vertebra is the diaphragmatic vertebra, and 
in sheep, the eleventh. The scapula in sheep is short as compared 
with its width ; the border of the spina scapulae is slightly curved 
backward into an arch in its middle, while in the goat it is straight. 
The pelvis in sheep is more compressed than that of goats. 

"With reference to the difference between the skeletons of 
sheep and goats, attention should also be called to the careful 
work of Biitzler (" Contribution to Comparative Osteology of Sheep 
and Goat." Inaug. Diss.: Leipsic, 1896), in which attention is called 
to the fact that the lachrymal fossae, which are characteristic of 
sheep, are entirely wanting in the goat. The atlas in the goat is 
longer and narrower than in the sheep, the anterior tubercle being 
higher and more pronounced. Similarly, the alae are considerably 
longer than in sheep. The axis is narrower and more slender, and 
its spinal ridge is developed anteriorly and posteriorly over the 
bodies of the vertebrae. The vertebrarterial foramen is wanting ; 
on the other hand, the intervertebral foramen is one-half larger 
than in sheep. The spinous processes of the remaining cervical 
vertebrae are long, pointed and provided with sharp edges in the 
goat ; while in sheep, on the other hand, they are broad and blunt. 
The transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae of goats are thin 
and delicate. Similarly, the dorsal vertebrae of the goat are narrower 
than those of the sheep. Furthermore, the lumbar vertebrae possess 
a considerably longer and more slender form than in sheep. The 
spinous processes form a thickened, cushion-like ridge on the upper 
end. The number of sacral vertebrae in the goat is at least four, 
never three, as sometimes happens in the sheep. Furthermore, the 
lateral borders of the ankylosed sacral vertebrae are thin and sharp, 
while in the sheep they are thickened like a cushion. The lower 
surface of the sternum in the goat is concave, while in the sheep it 
is flat and even. All of the pelvic bones of the goat are considerably 
slenderer and thinner. The pelvis itself is narrow and long ; con- 
sequently the pelvic opening is much narrower than in the sheep. 
Important differences are also observed in the scapula : that of the 
sheep is broad and short ; the spine is strongly developed, and bears 
a cushion-like thickening in the middle, which is directed backward 
in the form of a bow. In the goat the spine is flat, straight and 



DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS 207 

considerably lower. The neck of the scapula is well developed. 
The bones of the extremities of goats, with the exception of the 
metacarpus and metatarsus, which are shorter than in the sheep, 
are slenderer and thinner. The muscle processes and articular pro- 
cesses are slenderer and less strongly developed. The posterior 
surface of the fibula is concave. The tibia is decidedly twisted in a 
spiral manner. 

A general comparison of the skeletons of both these species of 
animal shows that the bones of the goat are characterized by a 
slenderer form and smaller joints. In contrast with these condi- 
tions, the bones of the sheep are shorter, more compact and massive, 
and the articular connections are larger. 

Lohoff draws attention to the fact that the bones of the goat 
are harder and more brittle than those of the sheep, and that the 
former break like glass. 

Sheep, Goats and Deer. — Martin asserts that it is easier to 
distinguish between deer, sheep and goats than between sheep and 
goats. Especially in the comparison with sheep, the deer is at once 
distinguished by its graceful, slender bones. The cervical vertebrae 
of the deer, in proportion to their thickness, are even longer than 
in the goat ; the spinous processes of the dorsal vertebras, from the 
third to the twelfth, are bent forward. On the lumbar vertebras in 
deer, the spinous processes are drawn out into a sharp hook, pointing 
forward. This structure is decidedly smaller in sheep and goats. 
The angle of the spine of the scapula in the deer is prolonged 
downward into a sharp point, which is either wanting in sheep and 
goats, or is much less strongly developed. The radius, ulna and 
humerus of the deer are characterized by their slender form. The 
radio-ulnar arch in sheep and goats is an oval space ; in the deer, 
it is very long. The pelvis of the deer is small, very narrow, and 
its posterior portion is very long. In the deer, the body of the 
femur, in proportion to its extremities, is much slenderer than in 
the sheep and goat. 

Hog and Dog. — On a careful examination, these animals present 
many differences in the skeleton. The first cervical vertebra in the 
hog possesses on its upper surface a prominent tuberosity, which is 
flattened in the dog. The second, as well as the third, cervical 
vertebrae in the hog are short as compared with those of the dog. 
The dorsal ridge of the second vertebra in the hog is drawn out 
into a process directed backward, while in the dog this process is 



208 APPEABANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND OEGANS 

directed forward. The odontoid process in the hog is short and 
blunt, while in the dog it is long and pointed. The third cervical 
vertebra of the hog possesses a long spinous process, which in the 
dog is only a slight ridge. The dorsal vertebrae of the hog are 
distinguished by their enormous blade-like spinous processes. In 
the dog they are much smaller, rougher and thicker. Furthermore, 
the vertebral bodies in the hog are relatively broader than in the 
dog. In the lumbar vertebrae it is to be noted that the spinous 
processes, with the exception of the last one, become broader above, 
while in the dog all of them become narrower ; the spinous processes 
in the hog stand almost perpendicularly to the vertebral bodies, 
while in the dog they are directed forward and downward. The 
sacrum of the hog consists of four ankylosed vertebrae ; that of the 
dog, of three. The spinous processes in the hog are rudimentary 
and bifurcated, while in the dog they are ankylosed into a sharp 
ridge. The ribs of the dog are more strongly curved and rounder 
than those of the hog. The sternum of the hog is flat and broad 
posteriorly, while that of the dog is long and narrow. It is to be 
noted that the neck of the scapula in the hog is considerably longer 
than in the dog. Furthermore, the spina scapulae is directed back- 
ward in the hog in the middle third of its length ; in the dog, in its 
inferior third. The humerus of the hog is distinguished by its 
extraordinarily strong lateral muscle prominences, as well as by its 
hook-shaped lateral trochanter, which is bent inwardly. Further- 
more, both condyles in the dog run in a nearly parallel direction, 
while in the hog the lateral condyle is curved in a slightly spiral 
manner outwardly. The fore arm of the hog is shorter, aud bent 
forward more decidedly than in the dog. The elbow of the hog is 
characterized by its length and strong development. The pelvis of 
the dog is distinguished from the very long hog pelvis by its short- 
ness. The ischium of the dog is short and broad, while in the hog 
it is greatly elongated. The femur of the dog is stronger than that 
of the .hog. The tibia in the dog is slenderer than in the hog, and 
slightly bent in the form of an S. The fibula in the hog is distin- 
guished by its stronger development, and by a groove-like fossa on 
its exterior surface. 

Hare and Cat. — On the first cervical vertebra of the hare, the 
wings project further laterally than in the cat. The dorsal ridge of 
the axis in the cat is drawn out into a hook-shaped process posteri- 
orly and blunt in front. In the hare these conditions are exactly 
reversed. The dorsal vertebrae of the hare exhibit spinous processes 



DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS 20$ 

■which are directed forward, while the spinous processes in the cat, 
on the other hand, as far as the twelfth vertebra, are slightly curved 
in a backward direction. Martin calls attention to the striking 
differences in the lumbar vertebrae. In the hare it is observed that 
the large transverse processes, which are directed forwards, are 
prolonged into anterior and posterior lobes. In the cat the narrow 
transverse processes end in a point. Furthermore, in the hare the 
ventral ridge of the vertebral body is prolonged into a sharp spine, 
which is wanting in the cat. The ribs of the hare are broad and flat ; 
those of the eat more nearly round. The scapula of the hare is 
distinguished by the fact that the angle of the spine is prolonged 
into a long point which is bent backwards at right angles. The 
lower end of the humerus in the cat is almost twice as wide as in the 
hare. The fossa olecraniin the hare forms a broad opening, while 
in the cat it is not broken through. The pelvis of the hare is stronger 
than that of the cat. In the hare there is a strong trochanter minor 
below the trochanter major of the femur, while the trochanter minor 
is wanting in the cat. The tibia of the hare is longer, and the spiral 
twist is less strongly developed than in the cat. 

Hare and Rabbit. — Martin found differences between the hare 
and rabbit in the dorsal vertebrae, the spinous processes of the 
rabbit all being bent slightly backwards. The hook-shaped, anteri- 
orly-projecting protuberances are also wanting. In the middle 
lumbar vertebrae, the backward-directed accessory processes are 
considerably longer, not spinous, as they are in the cat, but lobed. 
The ventral spine, or hook-shaped point, is similar to that of the 
hare. The ends of the transverse processes, however, are not so 
plainly bilobed in the rabbit as in the hare. The spinous processes 
of the sacrum are ankylosed into a ridge. The lateral portions are 
more sharply marked off from the wings. The ribs are similar to- 
those of the hare, and the same maybe said of the scapula, humerus 
and radius. The ulna, on the contrary, is relatively stronger, espe- 
cially in the lower third. Furthermore, in the cat the olecranon; 
process is bent more decidedly forward, so that the posterior border 
of the bone forms a more sinuous line than in the hare. Martin was 
unable to establish any essential differences in the pelvis, femur and 
tibia. 



210 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

The Differentiation of Horse Meat and Beef 
According to Niebel. 

The differentiation of horse meat from beef possesses the 
greatest practical significance, since the substitution of the former 
for the latter is very frequent. For this reason, meat inspectors 
for a long time sought to secure reliable criteria for the demon- 
stration of horse meat. The peculiarities of horse meat already 
described are not sufficient to furnish proof regularly, or even in the 
majority of cases, for those bones which alone can furnish reliable 
distinctions are removed before the meat is offered for sale. The 
demonstration of horse meat in sausage has hitherto been absolutely 
impossible, because other meat, and especially other fats (hog fat), 
have commonly been added to the sausage. It was thought possible 
to discover peculiarities in the fibers of horse meat through micro- 
scopic inspection. Some authors believed they had found an 
important criterion in the crystals of hemin. The investigations 
which were undertaken in this direction were, however, without 
result. Limpricht claimed to have demonstrated dextrin in large 
quantities in horse meat; This demonstration, however, was not 
confirmed by subsequent investigation. More noteworthy is the 
discovery of Niebel, that through the demonstration of glycogen 
we are in a position to recognize horse meat even in mixtures, 
sausages, etc. Niebel observed the peculiar sticky character of 
horse meat, and was at first inclined to refer it to the dextrin 
content. Dextrin, however, was found to be wholly wanting ; but 
Niebel found large quantities of glycogen in horse meat, and from 
his investigations drew the following conclusions : " That in horse 
meat, as compared with other kinds of meat, glycogen is found in 
large quantities ; in such quantities, in fact, that, without reference 
to the age of the meat, the smallest amounts found iu horse meat 
exceed the greatest amounts found in other kinds of meat." 

The conditions of the occurrence of glycogen in the meat of 
various food animals are illustrated in the following table, the 
quality of the meat at the time of the examination being good in 
all cases : : 

Per cent. 
Kind of Meat Age of Meat Glycogen content 

Horse 3 hours 0.700 

Horse 3 hours 1.026 

Horse 1 day .373 

Horse 2 days .603 



DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS 211 







Per cent. 


Kind of Meat 


Age of Meat 


Glycogen content 




3 days 


.523 




4 days 


.524 




5 days 


1.072 




5 days 


.460 


Beef 


4 hours 


.204 


Beef 


1 day 


.000 


Beef 


2 days 


.000 


Beet 


\ hour 


trace 


Beef 


5 days 


.076 


Pork 


4 hours 


.000 


Pork 


2 days 


.000 







.000 



For the demonstration of glycogen, Niebel made use of the 
Kiilz method. The meat to be studied (50 grams), together with 
from 3 to 4 per cent, of caustic potash and four times its volume of 
water, is heated on a water bath for from six to eight hours, until it 
is completely disintegrated. After the fluid has been evaporated to 
half its volume, and then cooled, the nitrogenous substances are 
precipitated by the .alternate addition of hydrochloric acid and 
mercuric iodid— iodid of potash solution (Briicke's reagent). Then 
the precipitate is placed in a filter, and the filtrate is again tested 
by the addition of hydrochloric acid and mercuric iodid — iodid of 
potash solution — to determine whether all the nitrogenous constitu- 
ents have been precipitated. The residue is rubbed up in a mortar 
to which hydrochloric acid, mercuric iodid — iodid of potash solu- 
tion — and water are added, and again filtered. This operation is 
repeated until the filtrate shows no cloudiness on the addition of 
alcohol. The filtrate then forms ordinarily a clear fluid which is 
opalescent in the presence of glycogen. At times, especially in 
summer, the fluid appears to be somewhat cloudy. In order to 
avoid this, if the fluid does not become clear after the addition of 
hydrochloric acid and mercuric iodid — iodid of potash solution — 
sodium hydrate is added until the mixture is still of a faint acid 
reaction, and then again acidified with hydrochloric acid and 
.filtered. The filtrate is then always clear. 

For the separation of glycogen, the filtrate is diluted with two 
and one-half times its volume of 90 per cent, alcohol, and the mix- 
ture stirred. After the glycogen is separated it is filtered. The 
.glycogen is then washed with 60 per cent, alcohol, then with 90 per 
-cent., and finally with absolute alcohol, ether, and again with abso- 
lute alcohol, and, after drying at a temperature of 110° 0., is 
"weighed. 



212 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

Glycogen exhibits the following characters : It is an amorphous 
white powder, which with water forms a decidedly white, opalescent 
solution, and, with the addition of iodin, gives a Burgundy-red 
color. Fehiing's solution, however, is not reduced by it. 

Niebel also demonstrated that the glycogen in horse meat 
possesses an extraordinary resistance, probably because horse 
meat withstands decomposition longer than other kinds of meat. 
In individual horses it is observed that, according to the nutritive 
condition, previous exercise and health of the animals, considerable 
fluctuations occur. Well-fed horses at rest show a higher content 
of glycogen than poorly fed, overworked or feverish animals. 
Overworked or feverish horses are not admitted for slaughter. 
In poorly nourished horses the amount of glycogen always consid- 
erably exceeds that of other food animals. 

After a time a portion of the glycogen in horse meat passes 
over, first, into a dextrin-like substance, then into maltose, and 
finally into grape sugar. For this reason, Niebel attempted to 
determine the quantity of sugar in old meat. This was accom- 
plished, according to a special method, by means of Fehiing's 
solution. In this connection, however, it should be remembered 
that, in addition to grape sugar, meat contains other reducing 
substances ; for example, creatinin. This substance is formed in 
different domestic animals in the same manner and in the same 
quantity from creatin. Niebel found also that horse meat, especially 
when not quite fresh, contains much reducing substance in addition 
to glycogen, while the meat of other animals slaughtered for human 
consumption is poor in glycogen and sugar. The total sugar content 
is determined by computing glycogen as grape sugar (162 parts of 
glycogen = 180 parts grape sugar). 

According to Niebel, the identification of horse meat may be 
considered as certain when the quantity of carbohydrates obtained 
(computed as grape sugar) exceeds the highest content of carbohy- 
drates thus far found in other kinds of meat; viz., about 1 per cent, 
of the dry, fat-free substance. 

It is noteworthy that pickling, roasting and smoking destroy 
neither the glycogen nor tbe sugar of horse meat ; nor, on the other 
hand, does it increase the sugar content of beef, at least not to such 
an extent that it exceeds the maximum content of about 1 per cent. 

The identification of glycogen, and determination of the sugar 
content, can also be relied upon for the demonstration of horse meat 
in sausage. Niebel found no glycogen in sausages which were made 
of beef and pork. Grape sugar was found in these sausages only ifk 



DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS 213 

the proportion of 0.7 per cent, of the dry, fat-free substance. The 
addition of cane sugar to sausage, which is customary in Berlin, did 
not interfere with this process. In horse-meat sausage, the total 
quantity of carbohydrates exceeded the maximum content of these 
materials in ordinary sausage eleven-fold. With this statement, as 
Niebel says, public opinion is in entire accord, since it is commonly 
stated that horse-meat sausage is distinguished by its sweet taste. 

It is scarcely necessary to call attention to the fact that minute 
quantities of horse meat added to sausage can not be demonstrated 
by Niebel's excellent method. This consideration, however, does 
not in the least impair the great value of the method just de- 
scribed. 

Since, furthermore, the meat of fetuses and fasting calves pos- 
sesses a high glycogen content, it is well to note the color of the 
sausage in determining the question whether horse meat is contained 
in it. Sausage made of horse meat is dark-brown. On the other 
hand, sausage to which the meat of fetuses or veal is added in large 
quantities is light-gray. Moreover, the addition of the meat of 
fetuses or fasted veal to sausages (bratwurst) is a deception, or at 
least an adulteration. 

Trotter tested the method of Niebel, and found in horse meat 
two days after slaughter from 1.4 to 1.85 per cent, of glycogen ; after 
four days, 1.45 per cent.; after eight days, 1.375 per cent., and after 
ten days, 0.9 per cent. In six samples of beef and in one sample of 
mutton, glycogen was not present. Of two samples of pork, one had 
no glycogen, and the other 0.26 per cent. 

Bujard obtained from fresh horse meat from 0.174 to 1.366 per 
cent, of glycogen ( = 0.64 to 4.62 per cent, of the dry substance) ; in 
smoked horse meat, 0.108 (= 0.19) per cent.; in horse-meat sausage, 
from 0.034 to 1.762 (= 0.05 to 5.34) per cent. The high glycogen 
content was found in leberwurst ; the low, in fresh salami sausage. 
In old salami sausage, only mere traces of glycogen could be 
demonstrated. Beef gave from 0.018 to 0.206 per cent, of glycogen 
(.= 0.073 to 0.74 per cent, of the dry substance). Veal gave from 
0.066 to 0.346 (= 0.25 to 1.44) per cent., and pork gave either no 
glycogen or a mere trace. 

According to Kemmerich, South American beef extract contains 
a relatively large amount of glycogen — on an average from 1 to 1.5 
per cent. Kemmerich ascribes this previously unknown occurrence 
of glycogen to the fact that South American beef is worked up in 
such a fresh condition that decomposition of the glycogen is 
impossible. 



214 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

In connection with Czerny, Ruppert demonstrated that glycogen 
constantly occurs in small quantities in blood and pus. The blood 
of dogs and sucking calves, according to the determinations of 
Ruppert, contains a much larger amount of glycogen (1.56 and 1.33. 
ing., respectively, in 100 gm. of biood) than that of herbivorous 
animals (cattle, 0.77 ; horses, .38 to .72 mg.). In cases of continued 
suppuration and persistent acute dyspnea, an increase in the glyco- 
gen content of the blood occurs up to 7.33 mg. in 100 gm. of blood. 
The glycogen content of blood, however, never reaches the percentage, 
which Niebel demonstrated in the musculature of the horse. 

(a) Modification of Niebel's Method, According to Brautigam and 

Edelmann. 

For the determination of glycogen, Brautigam and Edelmann ; 
recommended the iodin reaction described by Claude Bernard, 
giving attention to the following method : 

1. A small quantity (50 gm.) of the meat to be studied is, 
minced as finely as possible, boiled for one hour with four times 
its volume of water, and the meat broth thus obtained treated in, 
the manner described in Sees. 4 and 5 following. If the reaction 
therein described does not appear at all, or is doubtful, then 

2. Caustic potash (3 per cent, of the volume of the meat), 
dissolved in the same quantity of water, is added, and the whole 
is heated upon a water bath until the muscle fibers are entirely^ 
disintegrated. 

3. The meat decoction thus obtained is allowed to cool, evap- 
orated to a weight double that of the meat originally used, and 
filtered. 

4. The solution thus obtained, after completely cooling, is 
carefully diluted with nitric acid, for the purpose of separating 
the majority of proteid bodies and to decolorize it, and again 
filtered. 

5. This filtrate (the meat broth obtained according to Sec. 1, 
and likewise acidified with dilute nitric acid and filtered) is treated 
with iodin water, which must be prepared hot and completely 
saturated. The iodin water is carefully poured upon the filtrate in 
the test tube, whereupon, at the point of contact of both fluids in 
the presence of horse meat, a Burgundy-red or violet ring is 
immediately formed, the extent, strength and intensity of which, 
depend upon the quantity of horse meat present in the sample* 
under investigation, or upon the richness of the latter in glycogen. 



DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS 215 

This color reaction must certainly and unquestionably be 
present. The investigation, therefore, should be undertaken only 
in daylight. Before carrying out the iodin reaction, the material 
which is being studied must be tested for the presence of starch- 
flour (dilution of a decoction with tincture of iodin or Lugol's 
solution). If starch is present, the method is to be modified in the 
following manner : 

1. The sample to be studied, together with a suitable quantity 
of water, is heated in a porcelain vessel on a water bath for several 
hours for the purpose of extracting any glycogen which may be 
present.* 

2. The filtered extract should then undergo evaporation on the 
water bath to one-third of the weight Of the meat used in the test. 

3. To this evaporated extract, which, according to circum- 
stances, contains much amylogen, concentrated acetic acid is added 
in double or treble its volume; whereupon, after a half hour, 
flocculi appear in the cloudy fluid, which mass together more and 
more, and finally sink to the bottom as a starch precipitate. As a 
rule, the fluid, after most careful filtration through a double filter, 
is free from starch. One can become convinced of this fact by 
adding iodin to a small portion of the fluid ; otherwise one should 
make a further addition of acetic acid and wait a short time. 

4. The fluid thus freed from starch can at once be treated with 
iodin water. Hereupon, a glycogen reaction always appears if the 
quantity of horse meat in the material under investigation is not 
exceedingly small. Glycogen can, of course, be extracted from this 
material, but its demonstration, in the excessive dilution which the 
fluid has undergone through the addition of acetic acid, can not be 
brought about with certainty by means of a simple film of iodin 
water upon the fluid. For this reason, Brautigam and Edelmann do 
not conclude their method in such cases with the addition of iodin 
water, but usually prefer a precipitation of the presumptive glycogen. 
For this purpose, 

5. The starch-free extract is diluted with from ten to twelve 
times its volume of alcohol, and the cloudy fluid is filtered through 
a very closely woven, small filter. The latter holds any traces of 
glycogen which may be present, and which 

6. Is to be dissolved in a few drops of hot water, slightly 

* According to Brautigam and Edelmann, special importance is to be placed 
upon the thickening of the aqueous extraction on the water bath, for, in cooking over 
a flame, a part of the starch-flour may be transformed into dextrin, which gives a 
reaction similar to that of glycogen. 



216 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

acidified with acetic acid. These few drops of glycogen solution 
are best caught in a flat porcelain vessel, and a few drops of iodin 
water are allowed to run down from the edge of the vessel to the 
fluid. At the point of contact of the reagent with the fluid, the 
characteristic and unmistakable red color appears at once in the 
presence of the smallest quantities of glycogen. 

The preparation and testing of fluids containing starch must 
follow in close succession, and must not, under any circumstances, 
extend over several days ; for Brautigam and Edelmann observed 
that in solutions containing amylogen, when exposed to the air, 
erythrodextrin is formed through the influence of ferments, micro- 
organisms, etc. This substance may give rise to false conclusions 
on account of its red-color reaction with iodin. The separation of 
dextrin from glycogen has thus far never been accomplished. 

With materials which, presumably, contain only small quantities 
of glycogen, Brautigam and Edelmann prefer boiling for several 
hours in water, rather than with caustic potash, for the reason 
that the latter substance may have the effect of decomposing the 
glycogen. 

The qualitative determination of glycogen by means of the 
iodin reaction, as recommended by Brautigam and Edelmann, and 
as tested with reference to its applicability to meat and meat 
preparations, puts us in position to make a rapid inspection of 
suspected meat, and to decide whether or not the more accurate 
quantitative determination, according to Niebel, is required in any 
particular case. 

The qualitative demonstration of glycogen is not sufficient to 
allow us to assume the presence of horse meat with the certainty 
necessary for legal purposes. For, as Niebel has shown, beef may 
also contain glycogen under certain circumstances. The quantitative 
determination of glycogen excludes the possibility of such an objec- 
tion, since it leaves no doubt as to whether or not the quantity of 
glycogen peculiar to horse meat is present.* 

(b) Modification of Niebel's Method, According to Courtoy and Coremans. 

Courtoy and Coremans consider the precipitation of albumen 
as indispensable, and proceed in the following manner : 



* In his latest work (Zeit. f. Fleisch-u. Milchhyg., V), Niebel considers the 
demonstration of horse meat in sausage as complete when the material in question 
is colored brown-red, Mid permits the demonstration of glycogen according to the 
method described on p. 211. 



DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS 217 

1. Fifty grams of the meat to be studied in a fresh condition, 
and, after miucing finely, is boiled with 200 grams of water for 
fifteen minutes. Meat preparations should be boiled for thirty 
minutes. 

2. After the meat decoction is completely cooled, it should be 
filtered through paper which was previously moistened, in order to 
keep back airy fat bodies which might be contained in the emulsion. 
In case of fluids which contain starch and are thick, it is best to use 
a fine linen filter. 

3. To a small quantity of the filtrate in a test tube should be 
added a few drops of a fluid containing two parts of iodin, four of 
iodid of potash, and 100 of water. Three reactions may take place : 

(a) No dark-brovjfn coloration of the filtrate appears, in which 
case no horse meat is present. 

(b) The fluid assumes a dark-brown color, which disappears 
on heating to a temperature of 80° 0., and reappears on 
cooling. This indicates horse meat. 

(c) An intensive blue coloration of the preparation appears, 
which discloses the presence of starch and obscures the 
glycogen reaction. In this case, the starch is precipitated 
by the addition of from two to three times the quantity of 
concentrated acetic acid, and the filtered fluid is treated 
again with the iodin-potassic iodid solution for the pur- 
pose of securing another reaction. 

According to their method of investigation, Courtoy and Core- 
mans were unable to demonstrate in the meat of cattle, calves, hogs, 
dogs, cats and rabbits the reaction which is to be observed in the 
case of horse meat, or any similar reaction. On the other hand, the 
meat of the fetuses of horses, cattle, sheep and rabbits gave the same 
reaction as horse meat. The same investigators observed, farther- 
more, that the internal and external masticatory muscles of the 
horse, strange to say, do not give the glycogen reaction of the other 
muscles of this animal. Edelinann rightly observed, with reference 
to the method of Courtoy and Coremans, that the unstable nature of 
starch, and the similar behavior of its modification products to that 
of glycogen, are not regarded in this method to an extent which 
could be considered as excluding all errors. 

(c) Method of Quantitative Determination of Glycogen, 
According to Lebbin. 

Lebbin demonstrated that glycogen may be precipitated from 
meat solutions by alcohol, whether the solution has an alkaline, 



218 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

neutral or acid reactioD, while the precipitation of protein with 
iodin ceases when the alkalinity of the latter reaches a certain 
degree. It is possible, therefore, to precipitate glycogen directly 
from protein solutions by means of alkaline alcohol. According to 
Lebbin, however, it is desirable to purify the crude glycogen, since 
small quantities of protein may be carried with it. The method is 
as follows : 

Muscle meat or sausage is to be minced with a small sausage 
machine. Liver may be cut up simply with a knife. Then, in the 
case of horse meat or liver, twenty grams; in the case of other kinds 
of meat, containing less glycogen, a correspondingly larger quantity, 
is to be placed in a porcelain vessel containing 150 cc, together with 
90 cc. of water and 10 cc. of a 15 per cent, potash lye, and the whole 
is to be heated until completely dissolved. Boiling for a short time 
does no harm. Muscle meat requires from one-half to one hour; 
liver, a shorter time. During this treatment the fluid is evaporated 
to from 30 to 35 cc. It is then poured into a graduated cylinder 
containing 50 or 100 cc, and the vessel is washed with water until 
a volume of 50 cc. is obtained. After vigorous shaking, the solution 
is poured through glass-silk. By means of a pipet, 25 cc. of the fluid 
is to be placed in a beaker and 50 cc. of alkaline alcohol added. 
This is obtained by mixing ninety parts of a 98 to 100 per cent, 
alcohol and ten parts of a 40 per cent, potash lye. The precipitated 
crude glycogen settles after from two to three hours. It is desirable, 
however, to cover the mixture and allow it to stand over night. The 
mixture is then filtered and washed with the alkaline alcohol. 
Thereupon the funnel,with the filter and precipitate, is to be placed 
upon a graduated cylinder of 100 cc. volume. The filter is to be 
punctured with a platinum needle, and the material of the filter is 
to be washed in the cylinder with hot water, 80 cc. being the maxi- 
mum quantity required. The mixture should then be vigorously 
shaken, in order that all the glycogen may dissolve, and is allowed 
to cool. Two or three drops of litmus tincture is added to the 
solution, and 10 per cent, hydrochloric acid is to be added in drops 
until the fluid becomes red, after which three or four more drops 
should be added. Next, the mixture should be diluted with from 
5 to 10 cc. of Briicke's reagent and water sufficient to make 100 cc, 
after which it is again filtered. Of this filtrate, 50 cc. is withdrawn 
with a pipet and mixed with 75 cc of 95 per cent, alcohol which has 
been carefully poured through cotton batting. The next morning 
it is filtered through a quantitative tared filter, washed with alcohol, 
then with ether, and finally weighed. Finally, one may make a 



DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT OF FOOD ANIMALS * 219/ 

determination of the ash and subtract the sum. Lebbin, however, 
always obtained a glycogen free from ash. The quantity of glycogen 
obtained, multiplied by twenty, corresponds to the same percentages 
in the meat which was tested. 

Demonstration of Horse Meat, According to Hasterlik. 

Horse fat is distinguished from the fats of other food animals by 
its high absorptive power for iodin and by its high iodin number, 
according to Hiibl. It possesses an iodin number of from 74 to 83, 
as contrasted with 40 to 44 of beef tallow and 60.6 of lard. The 
differences in the iodin number, according to the investigations of 
Hasterlik, extend also to the intramuscular fat. In the intramus- 
cular fat of beef, Hasterlik found the iodin number to be from 49.74 
to 58.45 (an average of 54.37); in horse fat, on the other hand, from 
79.71 to 85.57 (an average of 82.23). The fat of horse-meat sausage 
on the market, in consequence of the addition of lard, showed a 
somewhat lower iodin number, namely, from 68.46 to 79.71. 

These differences, according to Hasterlik, make possible a 
determination of the origin of meat, even when the coarser adipose 
tissue, which is distinguishable by the naked eye, has been removed ; 
as, for instance, in conserves. Hasterlik considers that the presence 
of horse meat is demonstrated when the iodin number reaches or 
exceeds 80. 

In order to obtain the intramuscular fat, meat which is entirely 
free from visible fat is finely minced, and a quantity of from 100 to 
200 grams is dried for from twelve to eighteen hours at a tempera- 
ture of 100° 0. The dry substance is then extracted with petroleum- 
ether on a reflux cooler for six hours, and then with the same solution, 
for the same length of time, in a Soxhlet extraction apparatus.* 
After mixing both extracts, namely, that obtained from the reflux 
cooler, and that from the Soxhlet extraction apparatus, the petro- 
leum-ether is distilled away, and the last traces of it are so completely 
removed by blasts of air into the extract that no smell of the 
petroleum-ether is to be detected. 

According to Bremer, the determination of the iodin number 
of the flaid-fatty acids of the intramuscular fat forms a suitable 
complement to the determination of the corresponding number of 
the <at. In horse-meat sausage, to which lard is added to the 
extent of 25 per cent., he found the iodin numbers of the intramus- 

* Bremer calls attention to the fact that the petroleum-ether extract from horse 
jneat is colored red or dark-brown red in a characteristic manner. 



220 



APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEA.T AND ORGANS 



Fig. 24. 



cular fat to be 53.7, 74, 74.1 and 75.8, and the iodin numbers of the 
fluid-fatty acids of this fat to be 92.4, 104.1, 102.1 and 108.8. Bremer 
considers that the presence of horse meat is certainly demonstrated 
when the preparation is colored reddish-brown, or gives a strongly 
reddish-brown colored petroleum-ether extract, or contains glycogen, 

or when the iodin number 
of the fat exceeds 65, and 
that of the fluid-fatty acids 
considerably exceeds 95.* 
Nussberger proposes a 
refractometric determina- 
tion of horse meat. He 
found the refractive index 
of horse fat in a Zeiss re- 
fractometer (Fig. 24) at a 
temperature of 40° C. to be 
53.1 to 54.1 (on an average, 
53.5), while the refraction 
number of beef tallow never 
exceeded 49, and that of 
lard never exceeded 51.9. 
The intramuscular fat of 
horse meat showed an av- 
I erage refraction number of 
56.3 (55.2 to 59.8),while the 
intramuscular fat of beef 
showed 49.7 (48 to 50.5). 




Zeiss' refractometer, 



Appendix. — Inspection of German and. American Bacon. 

Relative to a suit at law in Koln on account of the smuggling of 
American bacon, the following opinion was handed down on the 
question at issue. Rehmet investigated thousands of the sides of 
bacon in question, and demonstrated that all possessed black hairs. 
They also possessed a characteristic odor, like the oil of tar, which 
was especially noticeable in cooking, and could be perceived for days 



* In accordance with this, Bremer considers as an evidence of .horse fat or horse 
meat an iodin number lower than that required by Hasterlik. On this point Bremer 
agrees with Nussberger, who found the iodin number of the intramuscular fat of horse 
meat to be on an average 71.9 (65 to 79), as contrasted with an average of 51 (50 to 58), 
in similar beef fat. In ordinary horse fat, Nussberger determined the iodin number 
to be from 80 to 94; in beef tallow, 35 to 44; and in lard, 59 to 63. 



EECOGNITION OF AGE AND SEX 22 L 

on the fingers and receptacles. The bacon tasted rancid. Farther- 
more, it frothed strongly and shrunk in cooking. None of these 
characteristics were observed in Dutch or German bacon. In fact, 
only a small percentage of Dutch and German hogs have black hair. 
According to Lubitz, the bristles in the rind of American bacon are 
not uniform, but stand in an irregular, brush-like manner. Further- 
more, the rind is thinner. Schmidt, of Aachen, found that more 
than three-fourths of the sides of bacon in question were covered 
with black hairs. Schmidt also called attention to the fact that he 
had previously inspected American bacon for trichina, and had 
found from 5 to 10 per cent, trichinous. 

3.— Recognition of the Age and Sex of Slaughtered Animals, 
and Classification of Food Animals. 

The determination of the age and sex of living animals, as a 
rule, offers no difficulties. In the meat of slaughtered animals it is 
quite otherwise. 

The necessity for determining the age and sex of slaughtered 
animals arises from several considerations. One consideration is the 
usual compilation, in meat markets, of statistics with regard to the 
age and kind of food animals in general, as well as on the relation 
between age and sex and certain diseases. Furthermore, an accurate 
determination of the age is necessary in legal cases, and for fixings 
the slaughter and insurance fees. Finally, a consideration of the 
age and sex are required in judging of certain pathological processes. 

(a) Age. 

Determination According to the Condition of the Teeth. 

The age of living animals, in the first place, is determined 
according to characters furnished by the development and changes 
in the incisor teeth. 

1. The Horse. — The first two incisor teeth, at birth ; the middle 
incisors, four to six weeks after birth ; the corners, six to nine 
months after birth. The milk incisors are white, and furnished 
with an evident neck;' the shedding of the central incisors, two and 
one4ialf to three years ; of the middle incisors, three and one-half 
to four years ; of the corners, four and one-half to five years. The 
permanent teeth are yellowish, without a neck, and furnished with 
furrows on the labial surface. The further determination of age in 



222 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

iorses is made according to the degree of wear. This is indicated 
until the ninth year in the incisors of the lower jaw, and until the 
twelfth year in those of the upper jaw, by the loss of the marks; 
later-, by the so-called round, triangular and inverted oval grinding 
surface of the incisors (from twelve to eighteen years ; from eighteen 
to twenty-four years, and, lastly, from twenty-four years on). 

2. Cattle. — Concerning the determination of the age of calves, 
more detailed data are given in the discussion of immaturity. As a 
rule, cattle retain the milk incisors for eighteen months. The milk 
incisors are considerably smaller than the permanent teeth in cattle. 



Fig. 25. 



Fig. 26. 





Incisor teeth of a beef animal 
one year old. 



Incisor teeth of a beef animal 
one and one-half years old. 



The teeth of old animals, however, may come to resemble the milk 
incisors in point of size, and, in fact, this similarity has already given 
occasion in slaughterhouses to errors in judging the age of animals 
under one and one-half and over ten years. By making a careful 
examination, however, even of the teeth alone, and when the horns 
and the condition of the symphyses do not enter into consideration, 
such mistakes are impossible. For the teeth of such old cattle 
project so far out of the alveoli that a large part of the root is 
visible. Furthermore, even if some doubt is still entertained, it is 
«asy, by exposing the alveoli in the jaw of a slaughtered animal, to 
convince one's self whether the permanent teeth, which have not 
jet broken through, are present together with the visible incisors. 

The German Agricultural Society has established the following 
Tules for the determination of the age of German cattle : 



RECOGNITION OF AGE AND SEX 



223 



As a rule, the first change of teeth occurs at the age of one and * 
one-half years. The central milk incisors fall out, the permanent 
central incisors appear and attain their full height at the age of two ) 
years. At the age of two and 

one-half years, the inner middle Gl ^ 

incisors fall out. The correspond- 
ing permanent incisors grow to 
their full height toward the end 
of the third year, and come into 
wear. As a rule, from the age 
of three and one-quarter to three 
and one-half years, the external 
middle incisors fall out, and the 
permanent incisors come into wear 
during the fourth year. At the 
age of four and one-quarter to 
four and one-half years, the milk 
corners fall out, and the corres- 
ponding permanent teeth come 
into wear during the end of the 

fifth year. At the completion of the change of teeth, good criteria 
for judging are obtained in the wear of the incisors and in the 




Incisor teeth of a beef animal three 
years old. 



Fig. 28. 



Fig. 29 




Incisor teeth of a beef animal four years 
old. 



Incisor teeth of a beef animal four 
and one-half years old. 



gradual appearance of the neck. The neck of the central incisor 

teeth becomes noticeable at the age of six years ; that of the inner 

x middle incisors at seven years ; that of the outer middle incisors at 



224 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 



eight years, and that of the corners at nine years. In animals 
•which are over ten years of age, all inner middle incisors are 



Fig. 30. 



Fig. 31. 




Incisor teeth of a beef animal six years 
old. 



Incisor teeth of a beef animal eight 
years old. 



strongly worn, small, loose, project far out of the alveoli, and are 
separated from one another. After fifteen years, the incisors either 
fall out or are present in the form of stumps. 



Fig. 32. 



Fig. 33. 



Fig. 34. 






Incisor teeth of a 
yearling sheep. 



Incisor teeth of a four- 
year-old sheep. 



Incisor teeth of a six- 
year-old sheep. 



3. Sheep.— The sheep is born with the central incisors. The 
\ inner middle incisors appear at from eight to fourteen days, the 



RECOGNITION OF AGE AND SEX 



225 



external middle after two to three weeks, and the corners at from 
three to four weeks. The shedding of the teeth begins with the 
central incisors at the age of from twelve to eighteen months ; next 
follow the internal middle incisors at from one and one-half to two 
years ; the external middle incisors at two and one-quarter to two and 
three-quarters, and the corners at three to three and three-quarter 
years. The chief point in the case of sheep is the differentiation, 
between the still uninjured milk dentition and the completely 
developed permanent dentition (Figs. 32 and 33). The dental, 
conditions in older sheep possess little practical interest. It may 
simply be remarked that after six years the incisors show a notch 
(Fig. 34), and fall out at from ten to twelve years of age. 

4 Hog. — At birth the hog has the third incisors and the canino 
teeth. The first incisor appears at from two to four weeks, and the 
second at from two and one-half to three months. The third incisor 
is shed first at nine months (according to Nehring, at seven and 
one-half months). Then follows the first incisor at from twelve to 
fifteen months, and, finally, the second at from sixteen to eighteen 
months. 



5. Bed Deer, Fallow Deer and Eoebuck. — According to 
Nehring, the shedding of the teeth in these animals occurs in, 
the following manner : 



Name of Teeth. 
Incisor 1 
Incisor 2 
Incisor 3 
Incisor 4 
Premolars 



Red Deer. 
After 15 mos. 
After 17 mos. 
After 20 mos. 
After 22 mos. 
After 30 mos. 



Fallow Deer. 
After 9-10 mos. 
After 12-13 mos. 
After 15 mos. 
After 18 mos. 
After 24 mos. 



Roebuck. 
After 6-8 mos. 
After 10-11 mos. 
After 12 mos. 
After 13 mos. 
After 14-15 mos. 



Different opinions have prevailed on the question of what is to 
be understood by the term calf, or fawn, in the case of red deer,, 
fallow deer and roebuck. According to Sec. 6 of the Hunting Law, 
of February 26, 1870, young game is considered as calves until the 
last day of December following their birth. For a long time police 
regulations followed the practice of admitting young game for sale 
if it weighed not less than twenty-two pounds. On the other hand, 
Nehring handed down the opinion that a twenty-two pound deer 
was suitable for sale, but that a deer which did not possess a 
complete set of molar teeth, and had less than six teeth, must be 
regarded as a calf. 



226 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ANIMALS 



Other Criteria for Judging Age. 

Besides judging according to the teeth, it is a well-known 
custom to judge the age of cows according to the rings on the horn, 
adding two to their number. But this characteristic is at best only 
supplementary to the dental conditions, since it can not be consid- 
ered as possessing absolute reliability, for the rings on the horns 
are formed regularly only when the animals have been regularly 
pregnant. This, however, is by no means always the case. At the 
same time, irregular intervals between.the rings on the horns permit 
the conclusion that pregnancy has been irregular. 

Finally, particular parts of the skeleton furnish us certain 
criteria for the determination of age : 

(a) The cartilaginous pads, between the diaphyses and epiphy- 
ses, which disappear after the growth of the bones is complete. 

(b) The articular cartilages, which connect individual bones 
with each other, ossify with increasing age. The degree of ossifi- 
cation of the ischio-pubic symphysis furnishes an especially valuable 
criterion for determining whether one is dealing with the meat of an 
old or a young animal. This symphysis is always cut through in 
slaughtering. In young animals this can be readily done with a 
knife, while in older animals it is necessary to make use of a saw or 
an ax. The sternal cartilages ossify in the median line during the 
second year. 

(c) The supplementary and organic cartilages of the ribs, 
spinous processes, scapula, trachea, ear, etc., which in old age 
become calcareous and ossify. According to Bunge, the supple- 
mentary cartilages of the spinous processes in cattle are cartilagin- 
ous only during the first years of life. Later they ossify and become 
completely ankylosed with the spinous processes. Up to the end of 
the first year, the supplementary cartilages are very sharply marked 
off from the bones, which are rich in blood. During the second and 
third years, the cartilage shows larger and larger islands of bone 
substance, and the white color of the cartilage is consequently 
changed into a grayish-red. Toward the end of the sixth year, the 
larger part of the supplementary cartilage becomes modified into a 
compact bony tissue. A very sharp line of demarcation is still 
visible between both parts, and a cartilaginous border is observed 
on the former supplementary cartilage. At the end of the eighth 
year, no cartilage is demonstrable, as a rule, in a longitudinal 
section of the spinous process. 



RECOGNITION OF AGE AND SEX 227 

(d) The tubular bones, in which, after birth, the marrow cavity 
becomes gradually larger, and fat marrow is formed. In old animals 
a, serous, infiltrated, gelatinous tissue replaces the fat marrow. 

The difference in color of the musculature and fat tissue of 
young and old animals has already been mentioned (pp. 199-204). 

Age of Fowls. 

In handling fowls a distinction is made, as a rule, only between 
old and young birds. For this differentiation, the following rules 
are to be observed : 

Young hens possess only the beginning of the so-called spurs. 
Furthermore, the scales on the feet are smooth and of a glistening, 
fresh color. The claws are delicate and sharp. The tarsus is soft, 
and the comb is thin and smooth. In old hens, the spars are hard 
and the scales on the feet rough. Furthermore, the lower half of 
the bill is so hard that it can not be bent with the fingers. Lastly, 
the comb is thick and rough. According to Cornevin, the young 
rooster, up to the age of four and one-half months, possesses only 
the indication of a spur in the form of a broad scale. From four 
and one-half to five months on, a small protuberance develops in 
the form of a spur, which at seven months is 3 mm., and at one year, 
15 mm., long and straight. At two years the spur, which has become 
curved, is from 25 to 27 mm. long; at three years, from 36 to 38; 
at four years, from 50 to 54; at five years, from 62 to 65. The 
breeds with feathered legs have shorter spurs than those with naked 
legs. The hen commonly has no spurs. Castration of the rooster 
checks the growth of the spurs. 

Old hen turkeys also have rough scales on the feet, calluses on 
the soles of the feet, and long, strong claws. Young turkey cocks 
show exactly the opposite condition in all these points, and an old 
turkey cock with the feathers on possesses a long beard, which is 
entirely wanting in the young cock. When turkey cocks have been 
picked, the roughness of the scales on the feet is a deciding factor 
in determining his age, and also the difference in the size of the 
wattles and the nose piece. Cornevin asserts that the red, fleshy 
wattles Appear in the turkey cock at from two and one half to three 
months, and the brush of bristles on the breast at from seven to 
eight months of age. Furthermore, the feet are black up to the age 
of one year ; rose-red at from two to three years, and gray rose-red 
at from three to four years, becoming paler from that time on. 

An old goose is to be recognized by its rough feet, strength of 
wing and beak, and fineness of feathers. In picked geese, the 



228 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

following may indicate the age : The condition of the feet, the* 
delicacy of the skin under the wing and wing points, the beak K 
and the thickness of the skin in general. 

In ducks the age is determined in the same manner. It should 
also be remembered that the beak, in its relation to the width of the 
head, is considerably longer in young ducks than in old ones. 

In pheasants (gold and silver), the plumage is dark up to the 
second year. This is not changed in the female even later, while in 
the male the gorgeous plumage and the long tail feathers are devel- 
oped at two years of age. 

Young pigeons are to be recognized by the paleness of their- 
color, by the smooth, closed feet and long yellow down feathers, 
which are found scattered among the plumage. Older pigeons, 
after leaving the nest, have red-colored feet, but no down feathers. 
If the latter recognition marks are present, the pigeon is considered 
by fastidious persons as already too old for the table. Up to six 
or eight months of age, the beak is soft, but becomes hard later, 
according to Cornevin. 

In young partridges, the beak is easily indented with the finger, 
but not in old birds. The feet of young partridges are yellowish, 
while in old birds they are gray. 

According to Niebel,the condition of the wing feathers (extreme 
tip of the wing) offers in many species of birds a convenient means 
of judging age. The feather vane of the wing tip in the guinea hen,, 
turkey, wood grouse, black grouse, hazel hen, white grouse, partridge 
and heath hen is pointed in young birds and more or less rounded 
in old birds. In the domestic fowl, turkey, wood grouse and pheasant, - 
the development of the spurs, according to Niebel, is to be consid- 
ered a good criterion for judging age. Furthermore, in all species 
of birds, the condition of certain bones (sternum, pubis, ischium) 
serves to indicate the age. The bones are flexible in young birds ; 
later, are easily broken, but are broken with greater difficulty as the 
age increases. Finally, in young pigeons, according to Niebel, the 
breast muscles show through the skin as white, while in older birds 
they appear bluish-red. 

(b) Recognition of the Sex of Slaughtered Animals. 

The recognition of the sex of slaughtered animals has a practical 
value in the case of cattle, sheep and hogs. 

1. Cattle. — Bulls, steers and cows are slaughtered — spayed 
cows but rarely. Besides this, one speaks of young cattle, one-halt 



RECOGNITION OF AGE AND SEX 



229 



to one year old ; heifers (young cows which never have never borne 
calves), and steers (young, unfattened oxen). The heifers and steers, 
in some parts of Germany, are sometimes included under the term 
" cattle," more correctly, young cattle. 

The bull is characterized by the massive development of his 
muscles, especially the neck and shoulder musculature (Fig. 35); 
also by the dark color of the musculature and the scarcity of fat 
tissue. Finally, the inguinal canal is open, for the reason that the 



Fia. 35. 



Fig. 36. 




Fore quarter of a bull. 



Fore quarter of a steer. 



testicles, with the spermatic cord, are removed in slaughtering 
(Fig. 37, c). 

The ox is distinguished from the bull by the weaker develop- 
ment of the shoulder and neck musculature (Fig. 36); by its thick 
panniculus adiposus, and by the possession of a scrotal fat tissue 
which completely conceals the inguinal ring (Fig. 38, c). 

In cows the udder is often carefully removed, except for the 
conical-shaped remnant in the posterior part. This operation is 
performed in order to give female animals the appearance of steers. 
"The attempted deception, however, is easily recognized by the 
mammary tissue which remains, and by the supramammary lymph. 



230 APPEAKANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

glands covering this tissue. Heifers possess an udder of only slight 
proportions, and, when in good condition, the udder is completely 
infiltrated with fat tissue (Fig. 39, c), as contrasted with the large, 
flabby, dependent udder of cows in lactation (Fig. 40, c). The udder 
of fattened cows, four to six years old, also shows a high fat content,, 
but always exhibits a strongly projecting glandular substance and 
large teats. 



Fig. 37. 



Pig. 38. 




Hind quarter of a bull, a, section of ischio- 
pubic symphysis; b. cut surface of the 
gracilis muscle ; c, external inguinal ring ; 
d, portion of corpus cavernosum. 



Hind quarters of a steer, a and b, as. 
in Fig. 37; c, scrotal fat tissue. 



Franck also called attention to the fact that a cross-section of 
the adductors of the thigh, which is, in fact, dependent upon the 
musculus gracilis for its form, is triangular in male cattle and 
bean-shaped or rounded, on the other hand, in females (Figs. 37 
to 40, h). 

Furthermore, a section of the pelvis in the symphysis pubis 
shows characteristic differences in male and female cattle (Figs. 37 
to 40, a). 



RECOGNITION OP AGE AND SEX 



231 



In the diagnosis of the skin, which is no longer in its natural 
connection with the animal, it should be remembered that the bull 
has straight, short and conical horns ; the ox, curved, long and 
strong horns ; and the cow, on the other hand, curved, short and 
slender horns. 



Fig. 39. 



Fig. 40. 




Hind quarters of a heifer, a and b, as 
in Fig. 37 ; c, fatty infiltrated udder. 



Hind quarters of a cow. a and b, as 
in Fig. 37 ; c, udder in lactation. 



2. Sheep. — Distinction is made between bucks, male castrated 
animals or wethers, and female animals or sheep in the narrower 
sense. The slaughtered buck is distinguished from other sheep 
by the strongly developed musculature of the neck, withers and 
shoulder. The meat of bucks may also possess a disagreeable 
odor, but, as a rule, this is rare. The penis is left on slaughtered 
wethers, and the udder on the ewes ; consequently, the differentia- 
tion of wether from ewe offers no difficulties. 

In England and America, breeders strive to bring sheep as young 
as possible, yearlings, to a condition for slaughter. This practice is 
based on two facts : First, it has been determined by numerous 
weighings that, with intensive feeding from birth until the end of 
the first year, the sheep puts on twice as much flesh as in the second 
year. Secondly, the business risk is smaller the earlier the auimal 
is ready for slaughter. 



232 



APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 



3. Hogs. — Fattened, castrated hogs (barrows), young boars not 
castrated, and breeding hogs (boars and sows) are brought to 
slaughter. Breeding hogs are distinguished from fattened hogs 
by the slight amount of fat and the stronger development of the 
musculature, which, likewise, possesses a darker color. Sows, 
furthermore, are to be recognized by the strongly developed 
mammary glands, and the boars by the so-called shield (p. 167) 
and specific odor. 

Boars, which for some time have been in service and thereafter, 
at an age of one to one and one-half years, are castrated, are known 
as " castrated boars " or " old cutters." They show the boar type 
in the form of the skeleton, and are esteemed of less value than 
animals castrated earlier in life. The specific odor is wanting in 
castrated boars. 

The term " originals ' ' is used to mean cryptorchids. They may 
possess all the characters of true boars when the testicles are 
functional. However, this is not always the case. In slaughtering 
male hogs, the penis, together with the navel pocket, is removed. 
The slaughtered male hog is characterized by the cut. A further 
means of recognizing the male hog is found in the remains of the 
ischio-penal ligaments, which are found in the ischiac notch. In the 
female hog, the cutting line in the middle of the belly is straight, 
and the section underneath the root of the tail is, as Lohoff indi- 
cated, longer than in male animals, in consequence of the removal 
of the vulva. 

Ellinger suggested the following characters for distinguishing 
between boars castrated late and early in life : 



CRYPTORCHIDS 


BOARS CASTRATED 

IN OLD AGE 


BOARS CASTRATED 
WHEN YOUNG 


Sexual excitement appears 


quickly 


Partly present 


Wanting 


Smelling at the vulva 




Wanting 


Wanting 


Urinous odor 




Wanting 


Wanting 


Strongly developed canine 


teeth 


Partly present 


Slightly developed 


Strong bristle crest 




Partly present 


Slightly developed 


Shield 




Partly present 


Wanting 


Penis 1.2 cm. in diameter 




1.2 to 2.2 cm. 


0.8-1 cm. 


Cowper's glands 10-15 cm. 


long 


Cowper's glands 
10-15 cm. long 


Glands atrophied 


Post-mortem shows one 


retained 


Not present 


Not present 


testicle 









RECOGNITION OF AGE AND SEX 233 

National Economic Value of tlie Castration of Female Food Animals. 

Modern breeding of races of hogs which, mature -early has 
almost entirely abandoned the previously quite general practice 
of castration of female hogs for fattening. Bleeders assert that 
hogs which arrive at maturity early may, by rational feeding, be 
made ready for slaughter before estrum appears. This assumption, 
however, is contradicted by the finding in the slaughterhouses of a 
large proportion of fat female hogs which are pregnant. The extent 
to which this occurs appears from the reports of the Berlin Food 
Animal Insurance Company, the expenditures of which, in the year 
1895, were not less than $11,540.60, as indemnity for the weight of 
the uteri of pregnant hogs. By castration, not only would this sum 
have remained in the general treasury, but also the profits of the 
feeders would have been greater, since castrated female hogs fatten 
more readily than pregnant ones. 

The same may be said in the fattening of cows, upon the slaughter 
of which one may demonstrate, not without a feeling of great regret, 
a large number of almost mature fetuses. The fetuses represent 
offal without any value. In eastern Prussia, several large land 
owners commenced the castration of all cows intended for fattening. 
The results thus far obtained are favorable, and suggest an extension 
of the method, particularly since the operation is not only easily 
performed, but perfectly safe. 

4. Distinction of the Sex of Eviscerated Roebucks. — For the 
distinction of the sex of deer, in which the skull is sawed out and 
the sexual organs removed, Eberhardt and Nehring offer the follow- 
ing important diagnostic characters : The pelvis of the buck is 
slender and narrower than in the doe. In the latter the external 
iliac angle is much further removed than in the buck, and the rela- 
tion is about fifty to forty. 

Of still greater importance for the determination is the form of 
the pubis, and especially the symphysis pubis, also called the " lock " 
by hunters. In the full-grown buck it is much thicker and of a 
rounder form than in the doe, in which it is flattened and hollowed 
out on its upper surface on both sides. The difference appears still 
more conspicuous in the symphysis pubis (Figs. 41 and 42). Similar 
sexual differences are found in the pelvis of the red deer and the 
fallow deer. 

Nehring insists that the differentiation of the sex, according to 
the condition of the symphysis pubis, can only be made with cer- 



234 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEATS AND ORGANS 



tainty in old roebucks, and Malkmus corroborates this on the basis 
of numerous investigations. Younger individuals have, uniformly, 
a somewhat tumor-like, swollen symphysis pubis. Furthermore, in 
the determination of the sexual differences in the roebuck, Malkmus 
recommends that the halves of the pelvis be separated and prepared 
by boiling. 



Fig. 41. 



Fig. 42. 





Pelvis of a male roe deer. 



Pelvis of a female roe deer. 



(c) Classification of Food Animals. 

The Conference of Delegates of German Slaughterhouse Officials, 
representatives of the German Agricultural Commission, etc., which 
was' held in Berlin in 1895, decided upon the following classes for 
food animals, in the place of the previous distinctions, according to 
Sees. 1, 2 and 3. 

Steers. 

1. Steers in full flesh, completely fattened, of the highest slaughter value, up to 
seven years. 

2. Young, fleshy, but not completely fattened, and older fattened steers. 

3. Fairly well-nourished young steers ; older steers. 

4. Poorly nourished steers of all ages. 

Heifers and Cows. 



1. Heifers in full flesh, well fattened, of the highest slaughter value. 

2. Cows in full flesh, well fattened, of the highest slaughter value, up to seven 



years. 



RECOGNITION OF AGE AND SEX 235 

3. Older cows, well fattened, but more poorly developed; younger cows and.' 
heifers. 

4. Fairly well nourished cows and heifers. 

5. Poorly nourished cows and heifers. 

Bulls. 

1. Bulls in full flesh, well fattened, up to five years. 

2. Younger bulls in full flesh. 

3. Moderately well-nourished younger and older bulls. 

4. Poorly nourished younger and older bulls. 

Calves. 

1. The finest fat calves (fattened on milk) and the best sucking calves. 

2. Medium fat calves and good sucking calves. 

3. Poor sucking calves and older poorly nourished calves (feeders). 

Sheep. 

1. Pat lambs and young fat wethers. 

2. Old fat wethers. 

3. Fairly well-nourished wethers and ewes. 

Hogs. 

1. Hogs of the finer breeds and their crosses in full flesh, up to one and. one- 
quarter years. 

2. Fleshy hogs. 

3. Poorly developed hogs, together with sows and boars. 

4. Foreign hogs, with a statement of their origin. 

The Conditions for Issuing Meat Intended for Troops. 

Meat intended to be issued to troops must be from healthy, not 
too poor food animals. The best quality is not required, but it 
must be good. Poor quality is excluded. The animals must be irt 
a good state of nutrition. Good products are always to be furnished 
to garrison commissaries. 

The meat of bulls, bucks, boars, including animals castrated 
late in life, breeding sows and Bakonyi hogs, can not be issued to 
troops. The meat of breeding ewes may be furnished to troops, 
but not to garrison commissaries. 

Steers must be from two to seven, and cows from two to six: 
years old, and must possess a live weight of at least 400 kg~ 
Wethers and ewes must not be over five years old, and their live 
weight must be at least 40 kg. Hogs must be from six to fifteen- 
months old, and must have a live weight of not less than 75 kg., 
and not more than 125 kg. Calves must be at least four weeks. 
old. 

The following materials are not to be furnished to troops as 
meat : Head, bloody neck portion, udder, front legs below the knee* 



236 APPEARANCE AND DIFFERENTIATION OF MEAT AND ORGANS 

liind legs below the hock, in the case of cattle ; the head and legs 
of wethers, and the udder of ewes ; the head, with the cheeks, the 
legs and the dorsal fat of hogs ; the head, the bloody neck portion, 
and the legs of calves ; the internal organs (heart, lungs, liver, 
stomach, spleen, intestines and kidney, includiDg the kidney fat), 
as well as special portions of bones, in so far as they come into 
consideration in weighing the meat which is to be furnished. 



VI. 

ABNORMAL PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS WHICH 
POSSESS SANITARY INTEREST. 



The abnormal physiological conditions in food animals can be 
classified into (1) physiological abnormalties and (2) pathological' 
processes. The following subjects belong to the first group : 

1 . — Immaturity. 

* 

Definition. — Animals are characterized as immature until they 
have reached the age of from eight to fourteen days. Until this age,, 
according to the view of most meat consumers, animals are not ripe 
or mature for the table. Most frequently immature calves and, 
much less often, immature pigs, lambs and goat kids are offered for 
sale. During the first eight to fourteen days after birth, animals 
exhibit a poorly developed, gray-red, flabby, strongly water-soaked 
musculature. These characteristics are especially prominent in the 
muscles of the thigh. If one grasps the musculature of the thigh 
from behind, it is noticed that in immature animals a flat, flabby 
readily movable muscle-mass is present in place of the full, convex 
muscle mass in older calves. Furthermore, the musculature of the 
posterior part of the thigh possesses such a soft consistency that it 
is easily penetrated with the finger. The fat tissue which is found 
in the kidney capsule in immature calves is of a yellowish or gray- 
red color and peculiarly tough consistency. It never possesses the 
white color and soft consistency, which becomes firm in setting, as 
observed in older calves. The subjective ideas concerning imma- 
turity exhibit great local variations. For example, while in South 
Germany a minimum age of three to four weeks is demanded for the 
slaughter maturity of calves, in other regions, as in Mecklenburg 
and Holstein, calves from two to three days old are much sought 
after. In Berlin, calves from six to eight days old furnish a highly- 
prized food material. This is due to two circumstances : In the first 
jplace, intensive dairying, in which all calves not intended for rearing 

237 



238 ABNORMAL PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS 

are quickly rejected, has introduced a custom to which meat 
consumers in the course of time adjusted themselves. Furthermore, 
the price of immature, or fasting, calf meat is naturally less than that 
of older calves, so that it becomes possible for persons of moderate 
means to eat veal — a luxury which otherwise would be denied them. 
Finally, by the art of preparation, especially by the plentiful addition 
of fat, it is possible to improve the original condition, and in this 
manner to prepare a palatable food from immature veal. In the 
greater part of Germany, in common parlance, calf meat is understood 
to mean that which comes from calves at least eight to fourteen 
days old. 

Official Determinations of the Meaning of Immaturity in Calves. 

In the regulations of meat inspection and local ordinances, the 
following rules are laid down : Section 11 of the Baden Meat 
Inspection Regulations of November 26, 1878, provides that the meat 
of calves under fourteen days of age shall not be regarded as market- 
able. An ordinance concerning compulsory slaughter in Dessau 
prescribes that only calves over ten days old and with a minimum 
^weight of 45 kg. can be slaughtered. In Insterburg, Eastenburg and 
Swinernunde, the meat of animals under eight days old is excluded , 
irom the market. Special ordinances forbid the sale of calves in 
'which the navel has not healed. In Stolp and Haynau the matter 
is decided according to each individual case ; likewise in Berlin. 
Here there is no minimum age limit for the admission of calves 
for food, but in each individual case the development and consistency 
of the musculature are the deciding factors. Calves in which the 
stump of the umbilical cord has not become united with the navel 
are regularly excluded from the market. 

Young pigs (sucking pigs) and the young of sheep and goats 
(Easter lambs and kids) must be at least three weeks old before 
they can be considered as mature for slaughter. 

Recognition. — Immature veal is to be recognized by the peculiar 
properties of the musculature and fat tissue, which are mentioned 
above as characteristic of immaturity. Lydtin also calls attention 
to the presence of red bone marrow in the long tubular bones in 
place of the fat marrow which appears later. The bone marrow, 
however, according to my investigations, becomes pale very rapidly 
after birth, so that the color of the bone marrow can not be regarded 
^as a reliable means of recognizing immaturity. Of greater 



131 MATURITY '239 

importance is the high content of glycogen in immature veal. This 
persists from the fetal period and gradually disappears a few weeks 
after birth (see pages 213 and 242). 

For the determination of the age of calves, which in many 
localities is considered as deciding the question whether they shall 
be admitted for food, we have the following criteria in the condition 
of the hoofs, teeth, navel and horns : 

New born animals have soft hoofs furnished with conical 
processes on the soles. The stump of the umbilical cord is still of 
a gray, moist character, and hangs fast to the umbilical ring. The 
vessels of the stump of the umbilical cord, as well as the hepatic 
portion of the umbilical veins, and those portions of the umbilical 
arteries which lie in the lateral ligaments of the bladder, are open. 
Moreover, in new born animals the reddened gums stand flush with 
the incisor teeth and cover them in great part. The number of 
incisors varies in new born animals. As a rule, however, calves are 
born with six incisors. 

Characteristic changes take place in the teeth and navel during 
the course of the first week. In the first place, the eruption of the 
corner teeth occurs during the first week after birth. In exceptional 
cases, however, this may occur later. After ten days (occasionally 
after seven days), the gums begin gradually to increase in redness, 
recede from the incisors, and assume the normal cushion form. 
After fifteen days, the middle incisors are free; and, after twenty 
days, the two corners are the only incisors not completely free from 
the gums, the redness of which no longer forms a striking contrast. 
By the end of one month, all the incisors have appeared through 
the gums and the latter are thenceforth of a permanent, normal 
character (Gerlach). After four or five days the navel becomes dry 
and black (necrosis). It falls off within two weeks (according to 
Gerlach, between eight and twelve days). Healing and cicatrization 
of the navel wound follow within two or three weeks, while the navel 
retraction takes place after the fourth week. The healing is much 
hindered by purulent processes in the navel. Morot collected 
statistics concerning the falling of the navel cord in the case of fifty 
calves. In seven cases the navel fell between the fifth and tenth 
day ; in twelve cases, between the tenth and fifteenth day ; in 
twenty-four cases, between the fifteenth and twentieth day ; and in 
seven cases, between the twentieth and twenty-second day after 
birth. 

The indication of the formation of horns on the frontal bones 
appears later. According to Gerlach, the thickening of the epider- 



240 ABNOKMAL PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS 

mis begins at the end of the second week. At the end of the third 
week, a hard, epidermal swelling is seen ; after six weeks, an evident 
horn nucleus is formed ; after eight weeks, complete epilation and 
development of the horn-cap ; after three months, a movable horn- 
point appears, 3 cm. long in bull calves and 2 cm. in heifer calves, 
and with a length of 4 cm. and 3 cm., respectively, after four months. 
In bull calves, Gerlach found that the horn-tip was fixed after 
four months ; while in heifer calves, on the other hand, it became 
attached after five or six months. 

Finally, attention should be called to the change in color in 
the kidneys after birth (see page 175). 

Thomassia demonstrated, in children, the following changes in 
umbilical vessels, which require substantiation by studies in calves. 
Even when life persists for only a few hours, the lumen of the 
vessels, arteries as well as veins, assumes a shrunken, almost star- 
shape cross-section in consequence of a strong contraction of the 
muscular layer, while, at the same time, the endothelium of the 
arteries acquires an opaque appearance, which becomes more and 
more apparent as obliteration progresses. The blood clots, which 
fill both vessels more or less completely, begin to turn pale from the 
fourth day, and on the fifth day show a decided tinge of yellow. 
From this time on, it is apparent that a slight adhesion occurs 
between the coagulated blood, which previously lay free in the 
lumen, and the walls of the vessel. After the twelfth day, the 
characteristic processes of the organization of a thrombus begin, 
and, accordingly, the lumen of the vessel becomes continually 
narrower. The process in the vein varies according as the lumen 
is free from blood clots, in which case the closure takes place 
through proliferation of the endothelium, or as the lumen is filled 
with a blood clot, as it frequently is. In the latter case, the histo- 
logical processes resemble those in the arteries, both with regard to 
the organization and the change in color, which in time assumes 
more and more of a reddish-yellow tinge. By the forty-fifth day the 
lumen of the artery is usually closed by the complete formation of 
a thrombus, and its transformation into a ligament becomes perfect. 
The individual layers of the arterial walls are thin, and difficult to 
distinguish from one another. Similar conditions are observed in 
the vein, which, whether from the process of thrombus formation or 
from the adhesion of the proliferated endothelia, also loses its vas- 
cular character, and is changed into a solid cord. While, however, 
it is often possible to recognize the previous lumen as a point in a 
cross-section of the vessel at the time in question (six weeks after 



MEAT OF FETUSES 241 

birth), commonly, at the age of sixty days, the lumen has, without 
exception, entirely disappeared. 

Judgment — The meat of immature calves is not harmful. Occa- 
sionally, the opinion is held that immature veal exercises a peculiar 
characteristic, physiological action on the human organism, causing 
the occurrence of diarrhea and illness. This opinion is, scientifically, 
without foundation (Schmidt-Mulheim). On the other hand, imma- 
ture meat is a spoiled food material, and is only to be admitted for 
sale under declaration. Its unfit character appears from the incom- 
plete development of the meat, and from the subjective repugnance 
of the majority of meat consumers toward it. With regard to the 
latter point, it is necessary to consider the difference in custom in 
different regions. 

The decision, that calves under eight days of age are not to be 
offered for sale under any circumstances, is a measure well calculated 
to check the practice of culling out immature calves and marketing 
them for slaughter. 

2.— Meat of Fetuses. 

The meat of fetuses is never a marketable food material. Only 
among English gourmands is the meat of fetuses considered a deli- 
cacy, as was the case among the Romans. In localities, however^ 
without regular meat inspection, all strongly developed bovine 
fetuses are falsely offered for sale as veal in the form of bratwurst. 

Recognition. — In those cases in which it is required to determine 
whether there has been a false substitution of fetus meat in the place: 
of veal, those parts which usually betray the fetus to the layman,, 
namely, the skin (with the umbilical ring), the hoofs, head, stomach 
and intestines, are, as a rule, not present. Nevertheless, the expert, 
is in a position to determine with certainty, and without difficulty,, 
the fetal character of the meat from the atelectatic condition of the 
lungs (they sink in water), from the open urachus, and the wide-open 
condition of the umbilical veins and arteries. Especially, the point 
where the latter branch off from the internal pudic arteries may 
make possible a final decision in those cases in which the entrails 
and umbilical ring have been removed. The liver, on account of its 
high value, is regularly included in the sale. A further means of 
recognizing fetal meat is to be found in the watery, flabby condition 
of the musculature, gelatinous condition of the connective tissue in 



242 ABNOEMAL PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS 

the region of the kidneys, which first shows a sparse accumulation 
of yellow fat soon after birth and the presence of a red marrow in 
the tubular bones. Finally, fetal meat is distinguished by its high 
glycogen content. By the demonstration of glycogen, the origin of 
individual pieces of meat and worked-over fetal meat can be deter- 
mined (see page 213). 

Niebel obtained from 400 grams of the meat of an almost mature 
calf-fetus, 7 grams of glycogen by boiling three times, and from 6 kg. 
of a fetus, at full term, 88 grams of glycogen by one boiling. 

, Judgment. — According to a decision of the Second Criminal 
Senate of the Imperial Court, of January 3, 1882, the meat of calf 
fetuses (so-called unborn calves) is to be considered as an unfit food 
material, because the normal condition is not present ; but not only 
this fact, but also the character of the object itself stamps fetal meat 
as unfit food material. The meat of fetuses is, moreover, in all 
civilized countries, considered as highly unfit for human food, for 
esthetic reasons, and is excluded even from qualified sale under 
declaration. 

3. — Poorness. 

With insufficient nutriment, or during excessive organic func- 
tions, and, in general, during disturbed relations between ingestion 
and assimilation, domestic animals frequently exhibit that condition , 
of nutrition which is characterized by the term " poorness." This 
condition appears in old age, in consequence of a failure in the 
power of assimilation on the part of the organism. It is character- 
ized by the scarcity of fat tissue, and by an increase in the consist- 
ency of the musculature and its darker color. 

Judgment. — The meat of such poor animals, in some regulations 
for meat inspection, is characterized as unmarketable ; that is, as 
unfit for human consumption. This, however, is not right, for the 
meat of poor animals contains, as was shown on page 192, more 
protein than the meat of fat animals. Its flavor, as compared with 
that of fattened animals is, of course, considerably less agreeable. 
It shrinks in cooking, becomes tough, and acquires an insipid, dry 
taste. The meat of poor animals is, therefore, less palatable than 
the meat of fat animals. Nevertheless, it is not necessary to require 
a declaration, for the reason that the meat of poor animals declares 
itself through the scarcity of fat tissue, without any legal require- 
ments. In this regard, the public needs no protection. 



EMACIATION 243 

Moreover, in the case of food animals, we do not have to deal 
with the highest degree of poorness. A regard for the utilization of 
the meat prevents the slaughter of the poorest animals. 

Furthermore, the meat of poor animals is indispensable for the 
manufacture of sausage. However, in working over sausage the 
quality of the meat in question is much improved as a food material, 
in consequence of its mechanical mincing and the addition of lard. 
It is, therefore, to the interest of meat consumers that the meat of 
poor animals should come into market in this more desirable form. 

4. — Emaciation. 

Frequently, the terms "poorness" and " emaciation " are con- 
fused, in spite of the fact that they refer to entirely different con- 
ditions. In the practice of meat inspection, especially in judging 
the meat of tuberculous animals, it is important to distinguish 
between emaciation and poorness. 

Distinction between poorness and emaciation. — Under ordinary 
circumstances, there is a whole series of food animals which are 
poor ; viz., all animals in the process of development, the majority 
of male breeding animals, and, finally, all cows of heavy milking 
races, which are slaughtered during lactation, or immediately after, 
without previous fattening. Poor animals are much sought after, 
because they furnish materials which are indispensable in sausage. 
For example, bulls bring a higher price when poor than when 
fattened. Fattening is, therefore, scrupulously avoided in these 
cases. 

The objection might be raised that all veterinarians entrusted 
with meat inspection would not be in a position to determine by 
the carcass, without having observed the animal during life, whether 
he was dealing with poorness or emaciation in individual cases, for 
the reason that the emaciation of fattened animals may reach the 
degree of poorness of animals which have not been fattened, or 
may stop at that point. This objection, however, is, as a rule, not 
justified. 

Poorness is a physiological condition present in perfectly healthy 
individuals. All the organs are normally developed, but the fat 
content of individuals is relatively small. Emaciation, on the other 
hand, is a pathological condition, or a condition which appears in 
Old age, during which the ordinary nutritive condition sinks below 



24i ABNORMAL PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS 

the normal.* Not only is there a loss of the fat laid on during the 
process of fattening, but usually an atrophy of the organs also 
appears, including the skeletal musculature. An approximate idea 
of the atrophy of individual organs in pathological or senile emacia- 
tion is famished us by data on the loss of weight of fasting animals. 
A fasting cat, for instance, losfcj according to von Voit— fat, 97 per 
cent.; spleen, 66.7 ; liver, 53.7 ; muscles, 30.5 ; kidneys, 25.9 ; lungs, 
17.7; and heart, 2.6 per cent. In two other experiments with dogs, 
the musculature lost 43 per cent, of its original weight. 

In addition to the more or less complete disappearance of fat, 
and the decrease in size of the spleen and liver, a decrease in the 
volume of the musculature appears in emaciated food animals. 
When this is connected with the disappearance of the fat deposited 
between the muscle layers and the muscle fibrillse, a soft, flabby 
condition of the musculature is unmistakable, even in early stages. 
This is especially well shown in a comparison of healthy and 
emaciated bulls. Healthy bulls, in spite of the complete absence 
of fat, possess strongly convex muscle contours. The muscles feel 
full and Arm. In emaciated bulls, on the other hand, the muscula- 
ture is sunken, flat, flabby and soft. A high degree of emaciation,, 
as is well known, is commonly associated with, the serous infil- 
tration of the subcutaneous retro-peritoneal and intra- muscular 
connective tissue. Gelatinous tissue replaces the fat tissue. Sim- 
ultaneously, with a high degree of emaciation, a grayish-red discol- 
oration of the musculature appears. 

Judging emaciation. — The decision on the meat of emaciated 
animals is essentially determined by the cause of the emaciation. 
The meat, however, under all circumstances, even in emaciation in 
old age, is unfit for food on account of the important anomalies in 
the musculature. If a slimy degeneration of the fat, or a serous 
infiltration of the musculature has already taken place, the meat is 



* Emaciation, therefore, appears suddenly (in serious fever), or gradually in 
chronic disturbances of metabolism. In the case of the sudden appearance of 
emaciation, in consequence of acute, wasting diseases, such pronounced changes are 
present in the parenchyma of the organs (cloudy swelling), as well as in the fat 
tissue (reddish coloration, and obliteration of the structure), that all doubt is removed 
concerning their meaning. In this place, therefore, only the more important chronic 
emaciation, which takes place in cattle, will be considered. Naturally, this must 
attain a certain degree before it acquires symptomatic significance. In consideration 
of this fact, reference is not made in regulations concerning procedure with the meat 
of tuberculous animals which are beginning to become emaciated, but to those which, 
arc already emaciated. 



ABNORMAL COLORATION OF THE ADITOSE TISSUE 245 

to be condemned as highly unfit for food. But, in those cases in 
which the emaciation is the consequence of disease, the decision is 
made dependent upon the nature of the disease (see under Oligemia, 
Hydremic Cachexia and Tuberculosis). 

5. — Abnormal Coloration of the Adipose Tissue. 

In discussing the normal properties of fat tissue, attention has 
already been directed to the fact that the fat tissue of cattle, on an 
exclusive grass diet, assumes a yellow instead of a white color. 
The meat of such animals is offered for sale without conditions, 
because it is, otherwise, of an unobjectionable character. In meat 
inspection, the only point of interest is to recognize the yellow 
coloration caused by feeding, and the difference between it and 
pathological icterus. 

The yellow coloration caused by food is exclusively confined to 
the fat tissue. In jaundice, on the other hand, in addition to the 
fat tissue, the entrails, fibrous membranes (fasciae, sclera and walls 
of blood vessels), cartilage, and, to a still greater extent, the muscles 
and bones, are colored yellow or discolored. Furthermore, upon a 
microscopical examination, an extensive accumulation of bilirubin 
crystals is found in the tissues, especially in the liver of icteric 
animals. 

6. — Abnormal Odor of Meat. 

This may be due to two different physiological conditions : (1) 
Excessive feeding with odorific substances, and (2) sexual activity 
of male animals.* 

As a rule, meat of an unusual odor also has an abnormal flavor. 
The latter, however, is less pronounced than the former. For this 
reason it is desirable, in rendering judgment on the meat under 
investigation, to consider merely the abnormal odor. 

1. — Abnormal Odor on Account op Improper Feeding. 

The feed stuffs which, when given in undue quantities, transmit 
a disagreeable odor to the meat are fish (herring and smelt) and 
swill. In the first case, the meat assumes an odor like whale oil ; 



* With regard to other causes of abnormal odor in meat, compare the chapters 
on Intoxications and Post-mortem Changes, as well as the sections on Stomach 
"Worms and Blackleg, in the chapters on Invasion Diseases and Infectious Diseases. 



246 ABNOKMAL PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS 

while, in the second, it possesses a disagreeable, heavy, or rancid 
odor. In both cases, the fat tissue acquires a consistency softer 
than normal, and is colored yellow or gray. Moreover, an abnormal 
odor of the meat is observed after feeding green fenugreek or 
decomposing turnips. 

It was reported from Konigsberg, in Prussia, that a part of the 
pork marketed there tasted so fishy that it either could not be eaten 
at all, or only with the use of strong condiments. The hogs came 
from the region of Labiau, where fattening was done entirely with 
smelt. In order to be certain, the slaughterhouse authorities of 
Konigsberg invariably subject suspected meat to a boiling test 
before they admit it to the market. 

Fenugreek (Trigonella fcenum-gr cecum), which, in Germany, is 
used simply for medicinal purposes, is cultivated as a forage plant 
in southern France, Italy, and other southern countries. It furnishes 
a luxuriant gi'een forage, which rapidly fattens animals. However, 
one objection to feeding with fenugreek is the fact that the meat 
assumes a very disagreeable taste, and an odor resembling hog 
dung. Mallet reported experiments which are chiefly concerned 
with the question whether the specific odor of fenugreek becomes 
definitely fixed in the tissues of slaughtered animals, or subsequently 
disappears from them. Mallet's investigations resulted in the 
following conclusions : 

A single feed of fenugreek, in a green condition, is sufficient to 
transmit the odor of the plant to the meat. This odor completely 
disappears within four days thereafter. The odorous principle is 
more rapidly excreted when the plants have just blossomed than 
when they have already formed pods and seeds. But, even in- the 
latter case, it is sufficient to stop feeding the fenugreek fourteen 
days before the sale of the fattened animals in order that the meat 
may regain its normal odor and flavor. The excretion of the odorous 
material takes place chiefly through the skin when the plants are 
fed in bloom ; through the milk, urine and feces, on the other hand, 
if fed when the pods have formed. Consequently, the meat of 
calves is more seriously injured by the milk of cows which have 
eaten ripe fenugreek than by the milk of cows which have fed on 
the plants in bloom. Ollmann, in Greifswald, observed a case of 
abnormal odor and flavor of meat after feeding decomposing beets. 
A farmer fed 100 lambs with this material. The meat of these 
animals possessed a rancid odor and a soapy taste, in spite of 
the fact that they had received other feed for two days before 
slaughter. 



ABNORMAL ODOR OF MEAT 247 

111 fowls, an oily odor, and flavor of the fat and meat, are 
frequently observed after fattening on rape seed, rape cake, and the 
refuse of oil manufacture. As is the case with swine, a flavor of 
whale oil is noted after extensive feeding with fish. This change is 
especially striking in turkeys and ducks which are fattened on rape 
cake or hemp seed, and in pigeons after a liberal feed of flax seed 
and colza. An oily odor and the flavor of whale oil are frequently 
present in Italian pigeons. Moreover, young geese from the region 
of Hamburg, and ducks from the Spreewald, often taste fishy. In 
these animals, however, the meat loses its disagreeable character if 
grain is fed for at least fourteen days before slaughter. A bitter 
flavor may appear in the meat of fowls which are fed to excess on 
turnips (Niebel). According to Labler,- the flavor of the meat of 
ducks fed on clams is extremely disagreeable. According to this 
author, the meat of partridges, in January and February, in conse- 
quence of an exclusive diet of grass and germinating seeds, has an 
odor of whale oil. Niebel found that, in the fat of fowls with an 
oily taste, the iodin number is considerably increased. Thus, in 
normal turkey fat it was 75.48, while in oily fat it was 113.30. 

2. — Abnormal Odor in Male Food Animals. 

A specific odor is observed in sexually mature buck goats and ' 
boars. The odor is highly disagreeable, and is called buck-and-boar ' 
odor, since it can not be more definitely described. It is customary 
to speak of this abnormal odor, which is especially strong in the 
meat of the posterior part of boars, as urinous, because it possesses 
a certain similarity to the odor of decomposed urine. The flavor of 
the meat is also repulsive. Furthermore, in these animals during 
old age, the muscle fibers become tough and difficult to masticate ; 
and, in the boar, the skin becomes in part chondrified with the 
formation of the so-called shield, which makes this part literally 
inedible, because it can not be comminuted with the teeth. The 
disagreeable odor and flavor of buck and boar meat is removed by 
castration. Obviously, castration should take place some time 
before slaughter, if the operation is to have the desired effect. 
Further investigation is required to determine whether the common 
practice of butchers in castrating goat bucks and boars immediately 
before slaughter has any influence on the odor of the meat. 

The meat of cryptorchid boars, in which the retained testicles 
are atrophied, does not possess an odor more disagreeable than that 
of barrows (page 232). Furthermore, in actual boars and crypt- 



248 ABNORMAL PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS 

orchid boars with functional testicles, the urinous odor is not always 
present. In fact, Goltz, during a period of four years, by careful 
boiling tests in the slaughterhouse at Halle, proved that boars and 
cryptorchid boars furnish neither malodorous nor ill-flavored meat. 
A repulsive odor and bad flavor were present in only 20 per cent, of 
the boars which were inspected, while in 80 per cent, the meat was 
of a marketable character. This finding agrees with the observation 
of Brebeck, who cooked portions of the meat of five cryptorchid 
boars — boiled, roasted, and ate them, without being able to detect 
any disagreeable odor. 

Formerly, the opinion was quite general that, under certain 
conditions, the meat of buck sheep might possess a repulsive odor. 
This, however, is uniformly contradicted by the veterinarians of 
slaughterhouses. Thus, Goltz, to whom we are indebted for a good 
account of the animal odor of meat (Ztschr. f. Fleisch-u, Milchhyg., 
vol. 7), called attention to the fact that, during his long practice at 
the slaughterhouse, he never had an opportunity to observe a 
repulsive animal odor on the meat of buck sheep. It was also 
asserted that the abnormal odor is, frequently, only slightly devel- 
oped in buck goats, and that this is the case even when the animals 
emitted a strong odor before slaughter. 

Goltz also called attention to the occasional and exceptional 
presence of a repulsive odor and flavor in the meat of bulls. The 
odorific material, which during distillation of the meat passes over 
into the distillation product with the steam, resembles the odor of 
the perspiration of living bulls, and is present only in vigorous, 
moderately fat and well-developed bulls ; but not in either run-down 
or fat animals. 

Possibl} 7 , the declaration of bull meat, required in the old 
German meat inspection regulations, is to be explained by reference 
to the presence of this abnormal odor. 

Demonstration of abnormal odor. — During the process of slaugh*. 
tering, and while the animal heat is still present, the abnormal 
odor is quite pronounced. On the other hand, during the cooling 
process, it may disappear to such an extent as to be scarcely • 
perceptible. In cold meat, however, it is possible to make the • 
unusual odor again perceptible by heating a piece of the meat over . 
a flame or boiling it in water. 

In rendering a decision on boar meat, Goltz recommends that I 
the boiling test should not be applied until one day after slaughter, 
for the reason that the meat of castrated hogs, when cooked 



ABNORMAL ODOR OF MEAT 249 

immediately after slaughter, possesses a peculiar, well-pronounced 
hog flavor, which is distasteful to many persons. 

Judgment. — Odorous meat, under all circumstances, is an unfit 
food material, and, therefore, only to be sold at a freibank. If the 
odor is strongly developed, and, simultaneously, other abnormal 
conditions are present (discoloration, softening of fat, chondrifica- 
tion of the skin, etc.), seizure and condemnation are indicated. In 
boars and cryptorchids in which, as already indicated, the abnormal 
odor and flavor may be present, a decision is to be rendered 
according to the result of the boiling test in each case. With 
reference to the so-called fishy hogs, it is to be remembered that 
they are regularly eaten in the coast regions, while in the interior 
only a few purchasers for such would be found. Goltz demonstrated 
that, in ill-smelling bull meat, the unusual odor is commonly dissi- 
pated into the air after hanging two or three days. This fails to take 
place only when the odor is very pronounced. In such exceptional 
cases the meat may be made edible by steaming in a Rohrbeck 
disinfector (with live steam), since the odorous principle passes off 
with the steam. Goltz was also able to demonstrate in the odorous 
meat of buck goats, that the striking odor gradually disappeared 
when the meat was allowed to hang in the air. To be sure, this 
only occurs after fourteen days. 

Advanced pregnancy. — Meat inspectors, with an insufficient 
training, have occasionally excluded from use, or have declared to 
be unmarketable, the meat of animals in an advanced stace of 
pregnancy. It is scarcely necessary to state, however, that this 
was without justification (compare Ostertag, Zeit. f. Fleisch-u. 
Milchhyg., vols. 7 and 8). Incidentally, it should be noted that, in 
buying food animals according to weight, pregnant animals are to 
be characterized as defective ; for the sale of a food animal by 
weight (live or dressed weight) is regarded by the court, not as a 
sale of cattle, in which guaranty is excluded on account of pregnancy, 
but as a sale of products, The vendor is obliged to make good the 
decreased value according to the weight of the pregnant uteri and 
fetuses, since these parts are not used as food materials. 

The Berlin Animal Insurance Society indemnify to the extent 
of the weight of the pregnant uterus in the case of insured hogs. 



VII. 

GENERAL PATHOLOGY OF FOOD ANIMALS FROM THE 
STANDPOINT OF SANITARY POLICE. 



The pathological conditions, which can be determined in 
individual organs of slaughtered animals, may be divided into 
the following general groups : 

(1) Malformations, (2) dissolutions of continuity, (3) atrophy 
and hypertrophy, (4) deposition of pigment and lime, (5) metaplasiae, 
(6) degenerations, (7) circulatory disturbances, (8) transudation, (9) 
hemorrhages, (10) necrosis, (11) inflammations, (12) simple tumors, 
(13) infectious granulations, (14) animal parasites. 

The sanitary significance of these different forms oi abnormali- 
ties varies exceedingly. Therefore, for purposes of orientation, it 
is desirable to explain the principal view-points for judging the 
conditions which are included under the above-mentioned patho- 
logical categories. 

1.— Malformations. 

Occurrence. — Congenital malformations of the organs of food 
animals are observed in various forms. The formation of fissures 
and obstructions are most frequent in the extremities and repro- 
ductive organs. Furthermore, Assure formations occur in the 
internal organs — liver, lungs, spleen — and occasion supernumerary 
livers, lungs and spleens. Moreover, abnormal accumulations of 
fluid of a congenital nature are not rare, especially in the liver 
(fetal hepatic cysts) and in the kidneys (hydrops renum cysticus). 

Judgment. — Malformations do not affect the availability of the- 
meat of individual parts of an animal as human food so long as the 
structure of the tissues remains unchanged ; as, for example, in 
fissure formations. If, however, the histological structure of the 
tissues is changed, as in congenital renal cysts, the malformed 

L 250 



DISSOLUTIONS OF CONTINUITY 25 L 

organ is to be considered as unfit, or highly unfit, for food, 
according to the degree of the change it has undergone. 

2. — Dissolutions of Continuity. 

Judgment. — Dissolutions of continuity, in and of themselves, do 
not lower the quality of any part of the body as a food material. On 
the other hand, the hemorrhage, which is commonly associated with 
these conditions, lends the character of spoiled food material to the 
part which is separated from its natural connections. 

Furthermore, dissolutions of continuity must be divided into two 
essentially different kinds ; namely, those which communicate with 
the outside world (skin, alimentary tract, lungs, urino-genital appa- 
ratus), and those which do not communicate with the outside world 
(rents in the musculature, fractures of bones, with uninjured general 
integument, ruptures of the heart, liver, spleen, etc.). Wounds which 
are in connection with the outside world may, by subsequent infec- 
tion, render the meat unhealthf ul (see Pyemia and Septicemia), while 
such a possibility is excluded in the case of lesions which are not in 
communication with the outside world, and which, therefore, run an 
aseptic course. 

In rendering a decision on dissolutions of continuity, it is very 
important, in all cases in which the lesions occur immediately before 
death, to determine whether they are of the one kind or of the other. 

3.— Atrophy and Hypertrophy. 
(a) Atrophy. 

Occurrence. — Atrophy, or wasting away, may affect the whole 
organism, as in old age, or individual organs. Only the atrophy of 
glandular organs and of the musculature possesses any sanitary 
importance. The atrophy of adipose tissue also possesses a diag- 
nostic significance (see "Emaciation"). 

Judgment. — Atrophied organs are unfit food material, because, 
as a rule, the specific tissue cells (as, for instance, the liver and 
muscle cells in atrophy of the liver and muscles) disappear to a 
greater degree than the interstitial connective tissue. Organs 
depend for their value upon the specific tissue cells, and must be 
considered as of less value, or worthless, when the specific cells 
disappear to a large degree, or entirely. 



252 GENERAL PATHOLOGY OF FOOD ANIMALS 

(b) Hypertrophy. 

Judgment, — Hypertropliied organs, in which the histological 
structure of the tissue is not changed, are considered as equal to 
mormal organs. This condition is most frequently observed as the 
so-called vicarious hypertrophy in one kidney, while the other is 
^diseased. 

4. — Deposition of Pigment and Lime. 

(a) Pigmented Deposits. 

Occurrence. — An idiopathic pigment deposit, in contrast with 
symptomatic pigmentation, as in icterus, is frequently observed in 
«attle in the form of melanosis, or black coloring. It is especially 
frequent in the lungs, liver, membranes of the brain, and spinal cord. 
3!n generalized melanosis, the peritoneum, pleura, fasciae, vascular 
structures, nerve sheaths, cartilage and bones are also colored black. 
^Melanosis, as a rule, is congenital, and seems to disappear with 
increasing age. 

Diagnosis.— Melanosis appears in the form of black blotches, 
or stripes and points. Melanotic organs, therefore, appear to be 
spotted with black, or "as if sprinkled with India ink." By 
examining the black colored spots under the microscope, it may 
T>e demonstrated that a black pigment (melanin), in granular form, 
Is deposited in the otherwise normal tissue. 

Melanosis should not be confused with melano-sarcomatosis 
(see " Tumors "). The latter, however, may lead secondarily to a 
:melanemia or melanosis of all parts of the body (degeneration of 
Ihe tumors). 

Judgment. — Melanotic organs and parts are unfit for food. 

Ochronosis. — Virchow used this term to signify a black coloration 
of the bones, cartilage and sinews in man. It is not due to melanin, 
"but to another granular pigment. Ochronosis, apparently, occurs 
also in cattle and hogs, and also, apparently, causes the dark 
coloration of the heads of the ribs in sucking calves. 

Broivn coloration of the skeleto?i.~Th.e Belgian veterinarians, 
IMosselmann, Hebrant and "Wagernous, described a peculiar brown 
coloration of the bones, which is also occasionally observed in. 



DEPOSITION OF PIGMENT AND LIME 



25a 



Fig. 43. 



Germany (the author's observations at the Berlin abattoir, and 
material sent to the Hygienic Institute of the Berlin Veterinary^ 
High School). As a rule, the affection is observed in young cattle, 
in which all the bones of the skeleton exhibit a reddish-brown^ 
chocolate-brown, or blackish-brown coloration. The chemical 
analyses made by Mosselmann indicated a normal composition: 
of the bones. The coloring material contained in the bones was 
not extracted by water, alcohol, ether, or chloroform, but was 
readily dissolved in alkalies and dilute acids, especially in KOH and. 
HN0 3 . In the first case, a brownish-violet solution, and in the 
second case, a rose-red solution was obtained, both of which were 
clarified by oxidizing reagents. On 
heating, ammonia was developed, and, 
after calcining, an abundant iron deposit 
remained. Mosselmann, therefore, con- 
sidered the coloring material as a deri- 
vative of hemoglobin, and classified it 
with the melanins, which, according to 
Gautier, are insoluble in water, alcohol, 
and soluble in alkalies and alkaline 
carbonates. 



Judgment. — In a high degree of 
ochronosis, in which the larger part of 
the skeleton is affected, and in brown 
coloration of the skeleton, the decision 
is the same as in melanosis. A less 
serious case, in which only certain parts 
of the bones show a dark coloration, 
is to be considered as insignificant. 




Xanthosis of beef musculature^ 
(after Goltz). a, granular in- 
terfibrillar pigment. 



Xanthosis. — A liver-brown discoloration of musculature is occa- 
sionally observed in cattle. Goltz was the first to call attention to 
this changed condition. In the cases which Goltz investigated, thes 
heart, muscles of mastication and tongue Avere most conspicuous 
for their dark-brown color. The remaining portions of the muscu- 
lature were simply somewhat darker in color than normal. By &. 
microscopic study, Goltz demonstrated that the peculiar discolora- 
tion was caused by the presence of yellow granular pigment between, 
the muscle fibers (Fig. 43). Moreover, the term xanthosis, which. 
Goltz selected, is quite appropriate for designating the cause of the 
changed color. 



254 GENERAL PATHOLOGY OF FOOD ANIMALS 

"When the pigment is deposited between the fibers, it can be 
recognized only by a magnification of 300 diameters. Goltz found 
that it gave neither the reaction of iron nor of bile pigment. The 
pigment can be extracted with chloroform. 

Judgment. — If the discoloration is confined simply to the heart, 
muscles of mastication and tongue, the removal of these parts is 
sufficient, while the rest of the musculature can be sold without 
hesitation. For we are dealing with animals which exhibited no 
functional disturbances before slaughter, and which, even after 
slaughter, showed no alteration except the peculiar discoloration 
of the striated musculature. 

When the whole skeletal musculature is discolored, the meat 
is to be considered as unfit for food, and is to be sold only under 
declaration. 

With regard to the black coloration of belly bacon in hogs, 
compare page 269. 

(b) Calcareous Deposits. 

Judgment. — A simple calcareous deposit impairs the quality of 
the organs and parts to a degree proportional to its occurrence ; for 
lime diminishes the percentage content of proteids in animal tissue. 
The simple calcareous deposit, which is observed most frequently 
in cartilage, less often in interstitial pulmonary tissue, and in the 
cortical layer of the kidneys, is of minor importance in meat inspec- 
tion, as compared with the calcification of parasitic forms (see 
Calcareous Concretions). 

5. — Metaplasias. 

Virchow distinguishes the direct transformation of one tissue 
into another by the term metaplasia. Metaplasia occurs only in the 
tissues of connective structures (connective tissue, fat tissue, carti- 
lage and bone). The transformation of cartilage into bone is most 
frequent. However, the transformation of the connective tissue 
castration cicatrix into bone tissue is frequently observed in spayed 
sows. 

6. — Degenerations. 

Of the degenerative processes, cloudy swelling and fatty 
degeneration are of paramount sanitary interest, for the reason 



DEGENERATIONS 



255 



that they are phenomena concomitant with serious general diseases 
(intoxications and infections). Their recognition is, therefore, of 
the greatest importance in meat inspection. 

(a) Cloudy Swelling. 

Cloudy swelling (parenchymatous degeneration, Virchow) is 
observed only in epithelial structures. The swelling becomes 
apparent externally by the slight enlargement of the organ, the loss 
of the original, color, sheen, outline and consistency. In the place 
of the glistening red-brown of the liver, for example, a cloudy grey- 
brown appears. The outline of the liver is simultaneously oblit- 
erated, the consistencv becomes friable, and the moisture content 



Fig. 44 



c d 





Cloudy swelling and fatty degeneration of the skeletal musculature, a, normal muscle 
fiber ; i, cloudy swelling ; c, slight, and d, extensive fatty degeneration. 



is diminished. The consistency of the myocardium, when affected 
with parenchymatous degeneration, may well be compared with 
that of boiled meat. 

Under the microscope, it is observed that the epithelial struct- 
ures are pervaded with fine, highly refractive granules, or spherules. 
Consequently, the epithelia appear cloudy and " as if covered with 
dust." The cell nuclei and the cell walls become indistinguishable. 
Granules which appear in the epithelia in cloudy swelling consist 
of albumen. 



(b) Fatty Degeneration. 

Fatty degeneration (fatty metamorphosis, Virchow) is likewise 
characterized by a loss of the original color, sheen, outline and 
consistency of the organs. The color of the liver becomes a cloudy 



256 GENERAL PATHOLOGY OF FOOD ANIMALS 

yellow-brown or grey-yellow. The histological details, which are 
easily recognized with the naked eye in the normal organ, disap- 
pear, and the consistency becomes flabby and soft. Under the 
microscope an appearance similar to that in cloudy swelling is 
observed, except that the spherules are fatty instead of al- 
buminous. 

Differential diagnosis. — For the differentiation of cloudy swelling 
from fatty metamorphosis, we add acetic acid to a microscopic 
preparation. The acetic acid dissolves the proteid globules, while 
the fat globules remain unchanged. Caustic potash may also be 
used in making the differentiation. The fat globules in warming 
become saponified. Lastly, the fat globules in fatty degeneration 
are colored brown or black by osmic acid, while the proteid globules 
in cloudy swelling do not give this reaction. 

It is, moreover, of great importance to distinguish between 
fatty degeneration and fatty infiltration. The latter occurs prin- 

Fra. 46. 





Fatty infiltration of the liver. Fatty metamorphosis of the liver. 

cipally in supporting connective tissue, but is also observed in the 
liver cells and, in excessively fat conditions, even in the renal 
epithelia and in the primitive fibril! se of the musculature. The 
differentiation of fatty infiltration from fatty degeneration is of 
especial interest in the liver. Fatty infiltration in this organ may 
appear in the form of sharply outlined spots which extend into the 
hepatic parenchyma to various depths (McFadyean). As a rule, 
however, fatty infiltration affects the whole liver. Mild cases are 
recognizable by a slight yellowish-gray coloration of the peripheral 
zone of the hepatic lobes ; the more extensive the deposit of fat, the 
smaller is the normally constituted central part, and the greater the 
swelling of the peripheral part of the lobe as compared with the 
central part, since fatty infiltration causes an increase in volume of 
the cells (Kitt). A liver completely infiltrated with fat possesses a- 



DEGENERATIONS 257 

cloudy, yellow-brown color, as in the case of fatty degeneration. 
The outline of the acini, however, is not obliterated and the 
consistency is not flabby and soft, but more nearly like that of 
cocoa butter. Furthermore, in fatty infiltration the liver is enlarged, 
the borders are rounded, for fatty infiltration signifies the original 
liver substance plus fat. In fatty degeneration, on the other hand, 
the liver protein is changed into fat. The organ, therefore, is not 
enlarged in fatty degeneration, but becomes smaller and compara- 
tively thin, soft and flabby. The borders are not rounded, but 
sharp. 

Under the microscope, the liver cells in fatty infiltration appear 
distended with large fat globules. The cell membranes and cell 
nuclei, however, are well preserved, while in fatty degeneration 
only small fat globules or "fatty abscesses" (Yirchow) appear in 
place of the cells. 

In fatty infiltration, according to Perls, the water content of the 
organ sinks below 50 per cent., while in fatty metamorphosis it 
remains normal and amounts to from 75 to 78 per cent. The 
specific gravity of fatty infiltrated organs is also correspondingly 
less. Normal human livers possess a specific gravity of 1,050 to 
1,065 (with a fat content of 3 to 6 per cent.) ; fatty infiltrated livers, 
1,001 to 1,035 (with a fat content of from 15 to 39 per cent.) ; fatty 
degenerated livers, as high as 1,056 (with a fat content of from 3 to 
8 per cent.) ; and livers which are both infiltrated and degenerated, 
1,009 to 1,012 (with an average fat content of 28 per cent.). 

As degenerations of less importance, mention should also be 
made of the mucoid degeneration of the fatty tissue, in which the 
latter becomes a yellow transparent mass resembling gelatin, and 
hyaline degeneration of the muscles, as an indication of serious 
general disease, or of certain primary affections of the muscle. 
Hyaline degeneration of the musculature, in which the diseased 
muscles assume a cloudy, dull, iridescent appearance, like fish meat,, 
is also considered as a necrosis (coagulation necrosis). 

Amyloid degeneration is rare in domestic animals. Isolated 
cases of amyloid degeneration of the liver and kidneys were demon- 
strated by Rabe in horses and cattle, and by Eivolta, ftabe and Kitt 
in dogs. In birds, amyloid degeneration appears more frequently. 
Boll and Friedberger observed amyloid degeneration in pheasants; 
Kitt in chickens. In an epidemic disease among pheasants, Fried- 
berger found extensive amyloid formations in the liver, spleen, and 
intestines. 



258 GENERAL PATHOLOGY OF FOOD ANIMALS 



7.— Disturbances of the Circulation. 

Local variations in the blood content usually disappear after 
death by bleeding. They are conspicuous, on the other hand, in 
case of natural death, and in animals which are killed during the 
crisis of diseases. A different blood content in paired organs 
(hypostasis) is, therefore, an important criterion in the recognition 
of animals which have died a natural death or have been killed 
during the crisis of disease. 

Hemorrhagic infarcts arise through embolic obstruction of the 
terminal branches of the arteries. They possess a round or wedge 
form and are first red, then yellow, and finally white in color. 
Embolic infarcts are of importance in meat inspection only when 
they are infected and consequently exhibit softening (see Pyemia). 

8. — Transudation. 

Transudation appears either in the form of edema, inside the 
tissue, or of hydrops in the body cavities. Both edema and 
hydrops occur in consequence of certain disturbances of the circu- 
lation, or of hydremia. 

Judgment. — Edematous infiltrated organs are to be treated as 
unfit for food. Dropsy of the body cavities, on the other hand, has 
no sanitary significance. 

9— Hemorrhages. 

By the term hemorrhage is understood an escape of the blood 
in toto from the tissues. Distinction is made between slight, limited 
hemorrhages (petechise or ecchymoses) or more extended and diffuse 
hemorrhages (suggilation). Petechise may occur in all organs. They 
are usually located in the serous and mucous membranes ; also in the 
cutis and subcutis. Like the parenchymatous and fatty degenera- 
tions, they are an important concomitant symptom of intoxications 
and infectious diseases, and are to be given special consideration in 
the determination of septic diseases. Suggilations, as a rule, are 
sequelae of mechanical rupture of the connections between tissues. 
Hemorrhagic infiltration of the musculature is very frequent in 
consequence of bone fractures. 

In the determination of the latter condition in slaughtered 
animals, it should be noted that slight hemorrhages on the external 



HEMORRHAGES 



259 



surface of animals which have been skinned should lead one to 
make incisions, since the connective-tissue strands are usually infil- 
trated as far as the subcutis in case of extensive, deep hemorrhages 
(Fischoder). 

Judging bloody parts. — Bloody meat is an inferior food material. 
Butchers attempt to remove the blood-coloring matter by sprink- 
ling with salt, subsequent washing with water, and the application 
of pressure to the pieces of meat. This is successful in the outer 
layers, but not in the deeper portions. 

Determination of the length of time since the occurrence of 
hemorrhages. — Experts in meat inspection are frequently called 



Fig. 47. 



Pig. 48. 




Hemosiderin, partly in nucleated cells, 
partly free in the tissue. X 1,000 
diameters (Thoma). 



Hematoidin crystals, from a large, 
centrally softened blood extravasa- 
tion of the peritoneal cavity. X 250 
diameters (Thoma). 



upon to render an opinion as to the age of hemorrhages, when 
they are so extensive that the meat is considerably depreciated in 
value. According to Durck, in determining the age of hemorrhages, 
we may make use of the changes which occur 'in the red-blood 
corpuscles, and the red-blood coloring material in extravasations. 
Durck made his determinations in hemorrhages artificially produced 
in the brain, and observed, in the first place, leaching and swelling 
of the red-blood corpuscles. The first change is manifested from 
the second day by etiolation, to the extent of complete transparency. 
The swelling becomes manifest when the flat, biconcave corpuscles 
gradually become spherical. From the fifth day a shrinking begins, 
which is ushered in by the appearance of minute impressions in the 
periphery of the blood corpuscles. One portion of the colorless 



260 GENERAL PATHOLOGY OF FOOD ANIMALS 

stroma may remain in this condition for sixty days or more. In 
another part, however, shrinking is more extensive ; and then in 
from six to eight days, either irregular polygonal and stellate or 
scutellate and cup-shaped forms are observed. Concomitantly, a 
certain comparatively small number of red-blood corpuscles are 
surrounded by contractile cells from the third day on. 

Up to the sixth day, hemoglobin penetrates uniformly the 
surrounding tissue, and gives it a light-brown color. Towards the 
end of the sixth and beginning of the seventh day, a modification 
of the red-blood coloring matter occurs, which has been described 
by Neumann as "hemosiderin." The hemosiderin at first penetrates 
the whole tissue in a diffuse manner (extensive Berlin-blue colora- 
tion after application of iron reaction). After the tenth day, it is 
restricted more and more to the contractile cells, and after the 
twelfth day is found exclusively in them. After twelve days the 
pigment, previously dissolved in the plasma of the white-blood 
corpuscles, becomes granular. The granulations are at first hard, 
but disintegrate into finer and finer granules from the eighteenth to 
the twenty-fifth day. Simultaneously, the cells which inclose the 
granules disintegrate so that the first free pigment granules are 
seen in the tissue after the eighteenth day. Toward the sixtieth 
day, one finds in the tissues only a rather finely granular pigment, 
free from iron. Furthermore, pigment crystals may be formed under 
certain conditions not clearly understood. 

10.— Necrosis. 

Necrosis may appear in all the tissues. It has significance in 
meat inspection, however, only in those parts of the animal body 
which are in direct contact with the outside world ; for the bacteria 
of decomposition, which are always present in atmospheric air, may 
settle upon necrotic tissues and cause pathological changes (see 
Sapremia). Furthermore, necrotic tissues do not offer protection 
against pathogenic bacteria, as does living tissue, for the reason that 
the former may be penetrated by pathogenic micro-organisms. 
Among the pathogenic bacteria, those which cause inflammation 
and suppuration have a ubiquitous distribution, similar to the 
bacteria of decomposition. Consequently, with necrosis of the 
skin, stomach wall, intestinal wall, uterus, etc., there is regularly 
associated an inflammatory condition of the neighboring tissue, and,,, 
under certain circumstances, also pyemia and septicemia. 



INFLAMMATIONS 261 



11. — Inflammations. 

Inflammatory processes in the animal body must, from the 
standpoint of meat inspection, be judged according to their kind 
and degree as well as according to the affected organ. We distinguish 
productive, serous, purulent, croupous, diphtheritic, hemorrhagic 
and putrid inflammations. These forms of inflammation may occur 
either on the surface of the skin, mucous or serous membranes, or 
in the interior of the tissues. Superficial inflammations of the 
mucous membranes are characterized as catarrh, and a distinction 
is made again between desquamative, serous, mucous and sup- 
purative catarrh, and mixed forms. In inflammations of tissue, 
in so far as glandular organs are concerned, distinction is made 
between parenchymatous and interstitial inflammation, according 
as the specific glandular substance or the supporting tissue is 
diseased. 

The deciding factor for the sanitary judgment of inflammations 
is their etiology. Most inflammations are produced by bacteria. We 
recognize, however, inflammations which are caused by mechanical 
irritation, such as productive inflammations on the serous membranes, 
and verminous pneumonia; also inflammations caused by thermic 
irritation (scalds, influence of the sun's rays, or excessive cold) ; and 
by chemical irritation (caustic and drastic reagents). 

All inflammations which arise in consequence of physical or 
chemical irritation possess, in and of themselves, only a slight 
significance in meat inspection, for they are local, and heal after 
the disappearance of the irritation. Inflammations which are 
caused by bacteria, on the other hand, may give rise to general 
diseases, and may give a worthless or unhealthful character, not 
only to the affected organs, but also to all other parts of the body. 
It is to be remembered, moreover, that secondary infectious pro- 
cesses may develop in lesions which,arise from physical or chemical 
irritations. 

The following details are given with reference to the different 
forms of inflammation : 

(a) Productive Inflammations. 

Nature. — By the term productive inflammation, we understand 
inflammations which are accompanied with the formation of new 
tissue. Of special interest for meat inspectors are the new forma- 
tions of connective tissue in the interstitial tissues of glandular 



262 GERERAL PATHOLOGY OF FOOD ANIMALS 

organs, and in the connective-tissue substratum of serous membranes 
under the influence of moderate but continuous irritation (cirrhosis 
of the liver, interstitial nephritis, pleuritis, perihepatitis, peritonitis 
fibrosa, etc.). 

Judgment. — Productive inflammations possess merely a local 
significance. In a mild form they are insignificant. Excessive 
interstitial inflammation, however, may render organs unfit, or 
highly unfit, for food, for it is accompanied by the destruction 
of those elements which give the organs in question their character 
and value as food material. 

(b) Serous Inflammation. 

Occurrence. — This occurs either as inflammatory edema in the 
tissues, or as inflammation of the serous membranes, with a thin, 
slightly clouded exudate. Inflammatory edema may be caused by 
the bacteria of suppuration, and also by other micro-organisms (see 
"Pyemia" and "Malignant Edema"). Serous inflammation of the 
lining membranes of the body cavity is either a phenomenon con- 
comitant with the inflammatory process in organs in the -cavities 
in question (for example, pleuritis as a sequela to pneumonia), and, 
therefore, without primary significance, or a primary infection, to 
be judged by itself. 

Judgment. — The decision with regard to primary serous inflam- 
mation varies. In case of a serous inflammation in closed cavities 
which do not communicate with the outside world (as, for example, 
in non-traumatic meningitis, tendo-vaginitis and arthritis of domes- 
tic animals), the process, according to previous experience, remains 
localized in the affected organ. In case of a previous wound, 
however, it is necessary to determine whether the inflammation 
possesses a septic character (see "Septicemia"). 

Serous, as well as sero-mucous, catarrhs are local affections 
which, at most, may destroy the character of the mucous membranes, 
in so far as these are concerned as food material. 

The exudation in traumatic serous inflammation of the lining 
membranes of the body cavity frequently shows, in the same manner 
as in secondary pleuritis, an admixture of fibrin in the form of 
yellow flakes or plates, which become attached to the surface of the 
serous membranes, and may easily be removed from them (sero- 
fibrinous inflammation). 



\ 



INFLAMMATIONS 263 



(c) Purulent Inflammation. 



Course. — Purulent inflammation, as a rule, runs a local course. 
Exceptionally, it may become generalized. 

Judgment. — An organ containing pus pockets is to be regarded 
as an unwholesome food material; likewise, the meat of animals 
which have suffered from generalized suppurative processes. For 
further details, see under " Pyemia." 

(d) Croupous and Diphtheritic Inflammation. 

Diagnosis. — It should first be stated that, anatomically, both 
these forms of inflammation occur only on mucous membranes. 
They are essentially distinct from one another. In croupous 
inflammation, a coagulable exudation is deposited on the surface, 
and the epithelium disappears. In diphtheritic inflammation, on 
the other hand, a fibrinous exudation is formed in the mucous 
membrane itself with the necrosis of the latter. The croupous 
exudation, from the manner of its origin, may be removed from 
its substratum without destroying the tissue deeper than the 
epithelium, while the diphtheritic exudation is firmly united with 
its substratum, and, after being thrown off, naturally leaves a 
deeper scar, or ulcer. 

Occurrence and judgment. — Croupous and diphtheritic inflamma- 
tions are most frequently observed in man in the form of the disease 
known as diphtheria. We know of no disease of domestic animals 
which is identical with this affection of man. Croupous and 
diphtheritic inflammations, however, are frequently observed in 
cattle. In this animal, diphtheritic and croupous inflammation 
accompany, chiefly, two infectious diseases : Rinderpest and mal- 
ignant catarrhal fever. Furthermore, a diphtheritic inflammation 
may occur in the uterus, and it forms here a process which is to be 
judged very cautiously, whether before or after death (see "Septi- 
cemia"). In the case of rinderpest and malignant catarrhal fever, 
on the other hand, nothing is known concerning the injurious effects 
of eating the meat of animals which have suffered from these 
diseases. 

Finally, mention should be made of diphtheritic inflammation of 
the mucous membrane of the urinary passages, which is caused by 
decomposition of the urine within the efferent urinary ducts. This 
diphtheritic inflammation is'also to be' judged favorably with r'egard 



264 GENEKAL PATHOLOGY OF FOOD ANIMALS 

to the availability of the meat for food, since, according to all our 
experience, it does not produce injurious effects upon the health of 
those consuming it (compare " Pyelo-nephritis "). 

(e) Hemorrhagic Inflammation., 

Nature. — In hemorrhagic inflammation, there is an admixture 
of numerous red blood corpuscles to the exudation (red coloration). 
Hemorrhagic inflammation is to be considered a symptom of a -very 
severe irritation (great alteration of the capillary walls). It readily 
leads to necrosis. 

Judgment — The etiology of hemorrhagic inflammation is not 
simple. Consequently, general propositions for the sanitary judg 
ment of hemorrhagic inflammation can not be laid down. "We merely 
know from experience that the meat is harmless in a large class 
of diseases which are commonly accompanied with hemorrhagic 
inflammation, as in pneumonia of horses (hemorrhagic pneumonia), 
in hemorrhagic septicemia (hemorrhagic enteritis), in swine erysipe- 
las (hemorrhagic enteritis, nephritis, lymphadenitis), and in urticaria 
of hogs (hemorrhagic dermatitis). In other diseases, however, such 
as petechial fever in horses, and certain not well understood forms 
of hemorrhagic inflammation of the intestines in cattle, the meat 
has produced harmful effects (see " Septicemia " and " Meat Intoxi- 
cation "). 

(f) Inflammations -with Putrid Exudations. 

These inflammations arise in consequence of the presence of 
putrefactive bacteria in the products of serous, suppurative, or 
necrotic inflammations. For further details on this subject, see 
"Sapremia" and "Septicemia." 

(g) Parenchymatous and Interstitial Inflammations. 

These inflammations take their names from their different 
positions in glandular organs. Parenchymatous inflammations affect 
the epithelial elements ; interstitial inflammations, on the other 
hand, affect the supporting tissue. Interstitial inflammation is, as 
a rule, productive. 

Judgment. — Parenchymatous inflammations are to be judged 
according to their causes. As a rule, however, parenchymatous 
inflammations are symptoms of certain intoxications and infections, 
and possess, therefore, only a diagnostic significance. The judgment 



TUMORS 265 

of interstitial inflammations corresponds to that of productive 
inflammations. 

12.— Tumors. 

Tumors are classified, clinically and patkologico-anatomically, 
as benign and malignant. 

(a) Benign Tumors. 

Benign tumors, in their sanitary relationship, possess only a 
minor importance as strictly local affections. Organs which are 
affected with benign tumors may be put in a marketable condition 
by removal of the neoplasm, since benign tumors do not alter 
the internal character of the organs except in their immediate 
neighborhood. 

(b) Malignant Tumors. 

Malignant tumors, sarcoma and carcinoma, have a decided 
tendency to enlarge at the expense of the affected organs. They 
displace the normal tissue by their rapid local growth, or penetrate 
it diffusely (infiltration), and, in addition, form metastases in other 
organs. 

Occurrence. — Malignant neoplasms occur primarily in all the 
vital organs and upon the general integument. Sarcomata, more- 
over, may occur in the skeleton. According to Pouchet and Metz, 
the scapular cartilage is characterized as the usual location for the 
melano-sarcomata, which occur so frequently in white horses. During 
the process of metastasis, sarcomata and carcinomata may become 
spread throughout all parts of the animal body. In the latter case, 
we speak of generalized sarcomatosis or carcinomatosis. 

Diagnosis. — The recognition and differentiation of malignant 
tumors belong to the rudiments of general pathology, and may, 
therefore, be omitted here. It should be simply noted that sarco- 
mata in the lymphatic glands are distinguished from tubercular 
alterations by the fact that sarcomata permeate the lymph glands 
in the form of a tubercle, or in a diffuse manner, and show caseation, 
but no calcification ; while the presence of small tubercles, which 
regularly become casefied in the center, and later become calcified, 
is characteristic of tuberculosis. 



266 GENERAL PATHOLOGY OF FOOD ANIMALS 

Judgment. — According to the present status of our knowledge, 
we must consider meat, or individual organs, which inclose malig- 
nant tumors, as a spoiled food material. Despite the fact that 
sarcomata and carcinomata occur in man, such meat is not dangerous 
to health, for the reason that, according to all experiments, the 
transmission of these tumors by means of the digestive apparatus 
is impossible. Among hundreds of experiments which have already 
been made, it has only been possible, in a few isolated cases, to 
transmit cancer from animal to animal by intraperitoneal injection 
(Wehr, Hanau, e£ al.), and to inoculate with fibro-sarcomata (Eisels- 
berg). The conditions surrounding these cases mast have been 
peculiar, for the investigators succeeded only once in transmitting 
the disease. Furthermore, the possibility of intraperitoneal trans- 
mission proves nothing with regard to the transmissibility of the 
disease through the alimentary tract. 

If malignant neomorphs are confined merely to individual 
parts of an organ, or of the meat — for example, to certain bones 
(osteo-sarcoma), or to lymph glands (lympho-sarcomatosis) — the 
meat may be offered for sale after careful removal of the diseased 
parts. If the meat is otherwise unchanged, there is no reason for 
prohibiting its sale. 

In cases in which the whole musculature, all the bones and 
intermuscular lymph glands are permeated with metastases, the 
sale of the meat must be absolutely prohibited ;is highly unfit for 
food. A similar course should be adopted in the case of organs 
which show a few large, or numerous small, malignant tumors. 

Formerly, as stated by Grams, a common and fundamental 
mistake was made in judging metastatic formations of malignant, 
tumors. They were placed upon the same basis with the generali- 
zation of infectious processes: for example, tuberculosis; and the 
generalization of the tumors was considered as already present, if 
the appearance of wide distribution was seen merely in the entrails. 
This point of view is not justified, since the tubercle bacilli, which 
are carried in the circulation, can not be readily demonstrated as 
such in the musculature. In the vital organs, however, they produce 
such striking changes as to furnish valuable diagnostic aid in the 
determination of generalization. In malignant tumors, on the other 
hand, in the case of generalization, we have to do with the transpor- 
tation of tissue elements which develop rapidly, and upon dissection 
of animals may be easily found in the musculature, and especially 
in the intermuscular lymph glands. 



INFECTIOUS GKANULATIONS 267 



13. — Infectious Granulations. 

Infectious granulations are caused by specific plant organisms. 
To the infectious tumors of domestic animals belong also the 
neomovphs of glanders, tuberculosis, actinomycosis and botryo- 
mycosis. For further details, see "Infectious Diseases." 

14.— Animal Parasites. 

The number of animal parasites in domestic animals is exceed- 
ingly large. Only a few organs are entirely free from them. The 
others are so regularly infested with worms that their presence may 
be considered as almost a normal condition ; as, for example, the 
presence of fluke worms in the liver of sheep and cattle, and of 
Strongylidse in the lungs of the hog. 

Some of these parasites are harmless guests, while others 
produce extensive changes in the affected parts, and, under certain 
conditions, may cause a more or less serious disturbance of the 
general health. 

By far the greater number of the parasites of domestic animals 
are harmless for man. Domestic animals, however, harbor dangerous 
enemies of man, particularly trichinse and cysticerci (compare the 
chapter on invasion diseases). 



VIII. 
ESPECIALLY NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES. 



It is not in the province of a text-book on meat inspection to 
discuss in detail all organic diseases. We have all the more reason 
for omitting such a detailed consideration here, since the principles 
of sanitary judgment of the different pathological processes in gen- 
eral are mentioned in the discussion of general pathology (Chapter 
VII). In the following discussion, therefore, only those organic 
diseases will be mentioned which are of special interest in any 
particular way (variation from the typical structure, or of value in 
differential diagnosis). Parasites and infectious granulations will 
I>e mentioned only incidentally, for the reason that a comparative 
and exhaustive presentation of those subjects is given under general 
diseases. 

1. — General Integument. - 

(a) Cutis. 

Solutions of Continuity. — As a rule, skin wounds heal rapidly. 
They offer favorable conditions for infection only until granulation 
begins. For granulations are centrifugal processes ; they furnish 
a mechanical protection against the penetration and resorption of 
foreign material. Granulating wounds are, therefore, to be looked 
upon as unimportant alterations, provided that the granulations 
extend uniformly over the surface of the wound, and communication 
between the deeper-lying parts and the outside world is not inter- 
rupted by the granulations. In the latter case, it is necessary to 
determine whether a retention of the secretion and its possible 
sequelae are present. 

Erythrisms. — Erythrisms of the cutis may be due to hemor- 
rhages, inflammation, or hypostases (death marks). Active hyper- 
emia of the skin disappears completely after death. The differen- 
tiation of the first-named three kinds of erythrism offers no difficulty. 

268 



GENERAL INTEGUMENT 269 

In hemorrhages, blood or blood corpuscles are found in the inter- 
stices of the tissue. They occasion no conspicuous' swelling, and 
can not be removed by pressure with the finger. In inflammation 
there are accumulations of blood in the capillaries, and a swelling 
arises with exudation. Death marks are found only in the deeper 
lying parts of the body. They are bluish-red, and readily disappear 
on pressure with the finger, since the blood is in the capillaries, and 
capillary blood does not coagulate. It is only where imbibition has 
already begun that the erythrism can not be made to disappear on 
pressure. As the name signifies, death marks are a sign of death, 
and, in fact, of natural death. In connection with them, there is 
simultaneously a large blood content of the subcutis (Klein). 

In differential diagnosis the erythrisms of the skin of the hog; 
are especially important (see "Swine Erysipelas"). 

Other Alterations. — In inspecting calves, attention should be 
given to the condition of the skin in the region of the navel 
(inflammatory alterations in connection with umbilical infection)^ 
In the hog, the following alterations of the skin deserve special 
mention : Thickening of the connective tissue frame-work of the- 
cutis into a cartilage-like condition in boars (compare page 167); 
black pigmentation of the cutis and of the panniculus adiposus on | 
the ventral side ; sooty mange of young pigs ; and the so-called 
granular eruption. ' 

Black pigmentation of belly bacon. — Female, male and castrated 
hogs, especially if they are black haired, occasionally possess in the 
panniculus adiposus, in the under part of the abdomen, numerous 
black, irregular, dendritically or venously branched spots, which 
were described by Saake in 1878, and recently by de Jong. 
According to de Jong, the spots are due to pigment deposits which 
are distributed in masses, and have their seat in the connective- 
tissue trabeculae of the supporting substance of fat tissue, and 
not in the fat cells. The pigment is granular, and under slight 
magnification shows black, blackish-brown, brown, reddish or red 
coloration. It is insoluble in hot water, alcohol, ether, chloroform 
and bisulphid of carbon, and is not changed by sulphuric acid. 
De Jong could not obtain an iron reaction. This, however, does 
not militate against the opinion entertained by the author, that the 
black pigmentation of belly bacon is a consequence of hemorrhage, 
since the remainder of the hemorrhage loses its iron after a certain 
time (see page 259). In favor of the hematogenous origin of the 



270 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

pigment in question, we have the seat of the pigment (frequent 
liability of bruising), and the fact, which was demonstrated by 
Blanc, that the pigment accumulates, especially in the region of 
the blood vessels. 

It should be noted that Tiircks observed black pigmentation of 
belly bacon in six black hogs which came from the same sty. 

Judgment. — The abnormal color makes belly bacon affected 
with this pigment unfit for food, and it should be sold only under 
declaration. 

Sooty mange of young pigs. — By this term is understood a 
scab-like eczema of acute or chronic form in young hqgs. In 
sooty mange an eruption of vesicles is observed, which are filled 
with pus, and burst. In this way a dark, pitchy scab is formed 
(pitchy mange). Sooty mange is merely a symptom of internal 
disease. The nature of the latter determines the course of action 
with regard to the meat of hogs which are affected with sooty 
mange. 

Granular eruption (Zschokke). — Granular eruption is character- 
ized by the presence in the cutis of roundish tubercles of various 
colors, and varying in size from that of hemp seed to that of peas 
(Fig. 49). The tubercles are firm but yielding. Curled hairs are 
to be seen through the apices of the tubercles. The hairs lie in a 
dark, oleaceous, tallow-like mass. The grain-like or shot-like 
tubercles, from which Zschokke named the disease, are especially 
numerous in the cutis of the croup, sides of the breast, and ears. 
Opinions are divided on the nature of the disease. Kitt considers 
the tubercles as atheromata of a minute size. Johne and the 
author consider them as multiple dermoid cysts, and Lungershausen, 
as arrested development (hypotrichosis). Finally, Zschokke ex- 
pressed the opinion that granular eruption represents an infectious 
process (conical proliferation of the epidermis inwardly, in conse- 
quence of an infection by micrococci). 

According to the careful investigations of Olt, none of these 
explanations is satisfactory. Olt demonstrated, in the first place, 
that granular eruption is a skin disease of progressive character ; 
that the diseased parts of the skin are sharply delimited, and 
exhibit large cysts in the middle and smaller ones at the periphery. 
Recently formed tubercles, recognizable by the naked eye, are of 
minute size, pale-yellow, or often almost white. By further growth 
in a superficial position, the tubercles acquire the sheen of dull 



GENERAL INTEGUMENT 



271 



pearls. Later, they become russet-red, yellowish -brown to brown, 
and finally blue-black, with a metallic luster. The largest vesicles 



Fig. 49. 



'% r \* v« 



Granular eruption of the hog after removal of the normal bristles. In some of the 
tubercles coiled and protruding bristles are seen. 

■ are of the size of mustard seeds, or, rarely, as large as peas. The 
yesicles are filled with a cloudy, watery fluid, and usually contain 

Fig. 50. 




Granular eruption of the hog. Cross-section of a convoluted gland (after Olt). 
a, eoccidia surrounded with shells and lying between the disintegrated epithelia. 

one, or, according to circumstances, two • or three, rarely more, 
bristles. Furthermore, Olt discovered from serial sections that the 
pathological process arises in the sweat glands, and is caused by 



272 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

cocciclia, which are parasitic in the epithelia of the sweat glands* 
and cause a proliferation of the epithelial layer (spiradenitis coccid- 
iosa). The epithelial proliferation leads to inhibition of the secretion 
and to the formation of a cyst. The bristles' come to lie in the cysts, 
either through fusion of the hair follicles with the cysts, or by 
penetration of developing bristles into the primary cysts of the 
convoluted glands. The fully developed coccidia have a membrane, 
are ovate, .034 mm. long, .0275 mm. wide, and, therefore, somewhat 
thicker than Coccidium oviforme (Fig. 50). They are distinguished 
by their brown color, wherefore Olt gave them the name, Coccidium, 
fuscum. The youngest forms are naked, and are found in the 
epithelia as brown, granulated masses of protoplasm. Later, by 
the destruction of the epithelial cells, the young forms become free, 
and wander into the interior of the glands, and transform themselves 
in the contents of the glands with different transition stages into 
forms surrounded by membranes. 

Judgment. — Granular eruption is a harmless local affection of 
the skin, which requires merely the removal of the diseased parts 
of the skin before sale. 

Finally, in the study of the skin the following diseases are to be 
considered : 

(a) In the horse, hemorrhages in petechial fever (morbus 
maculosus), sarcomata, melano-sarcomata in white horses ; botryo- 
mycomata ; glanderous tubercles, glanderous ulcers, as well as 
sarcoptic and dermacoptic mange (the latter merely in relation to 
veterinary police). 

(b) In cattle, actinomycosis, aphtha, and their sequelae. 

(c) In sheep, scab. 

(d) In the hog, aphtha and bleeding erosions, especially in the 
hoof. 

In birds, especially chickens, turkeys and pigeons, there is ob- 
served an infectious alteration of the skin (contagious epithelioma.) 

(b) Subcutis. 

Subcutaneous Fat Tissue. — The subcutis connective tissue is 
one of the most important depositories of fat. Consequently, in fat- 
tened animals, it is transformed into a strongly developed tissue. 
In emaciated animals, on the contrary, a yellow serous infiltrated 
connective tissue is found in the place of the fat tissue. 

Edema. — In the subcutis of the lower-lying regions of the body- 
are observed the first consequences of serious hydremia, as well as 



DIGESTIVE APPAEATUS 273 

of heart disease (endocarditis and pericarditis), in the form of exten- 
sive transudations (anasarca). Moreover, in the subcutis of cattle, 
restricted edema may be developed around the larvae of oestrus. 

Urinous Infiltration and Phlegmon. — Urinous infiltration and 
phlegmon are essentially different from edema. Urinous infiltra- 
tion arises from lesions of the urinary ducts. It is to be recognized 
by the urinous odor of the infiltrate and the tendency of the 
infiltrated parts to necrosis. Phlegmon is a serous, purulent or 
hemorrhagic inflammation of the subcutis, which, in limited exten- 
sion, has no sanitary significance. It is quite otherwise with 
malignant edema and black leg (see these subjects). 

Other Alterations. — In addition to the above-mentioned alter- 
ations, we may have in the subcutis tuberculous actinomycomata, 
botryomycotic alterations, also blood effusions (simple and specific 
[anthrax, morbus maculosis]) and emphysema of mechanical origin. 

In the subcutis and intermuscular tissue of fowls, mites (Cyto- 
dites nudus and Laminosioptes cysticola) are frequently found. They 
either live in a free condition, or are located in simple connective- 
tissue capsules of only i to 1 mm. in diameter, which possess a. 
flattened form and are frequently incrusted with lime salts. 

Judgment. — The number of mites in the connective tissue may- 
be so great that the meat must be considered as highly unfit for 
food. A few specimens of the mites are to be considered as. 
unimportant, in view of the frequency of their occurrence. In 
infestation of medium extent, the sale of the meat may be permitted 
under declaration as an inferior food material. 

2.— Digestive Apparatus. 

(a) Mucous Membrane of the Mouth, and Tongue. 

Inflammation and infectious granulations occur most frequently 
on the mucous membrane of the mouth and tongue of food animals. 

Inflammations. — The inflammations of the mucous membrane of 
the mouth cavity and tongue, as well as inflammations of the anterior 
parts of the alimentary tract, are of interest on account of their 
varying etiology. As a rule, they are caused : 

1. By traumata or caustic materials, which are administered to 
the animals as medicines, or are ingested by them with their food* 



1 



274 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



2. By specific toxines (aphtha, Fig. 51 ; rinderpest, scurvy, 
and diphtheria of calves and of fowls). Moreover, an ulcerous 
stomatitis appears as a general phenomenon in metal poisoning, 
especially in mercurial poisoning. In so-called diphtheria of calves 
and fowls, croupous and diphtheritic inflammations on the mucous 
membrane of the mouth and pharynx form the most important 
symptom of the disease (see these diseases). In rinderpest, large 
edematous swellings of the tongue are observed. The tongue may 

Fig. 51. 




Aphtha. Tip of beef tongue. 
a, Aphtha; b, epithelial erosion after bursting of the aphtha. 

be enlarged to three or four times its natural size. Furthermore, 
a considerable enlargement and prolapsus of the tongue may occur 
in consequence of phlegmonous stomatitis. 

Judgment. — In caustic irritation of the anterior part of the 
alimentary tract, if death does not follow at once, it is necessary 
to determine if secondary processes have arisen from the corroded 
or necrotic parts of the mucous membrane; for it is only such 
secondary processes, and not the poisoning itself, which renders 
the meat dangerous. The other inflammations of the oral cavity 
.are without independent significance ("for judgment, see under the 
different diseases in question). 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 



275 



Actinomycosis — In cattle, the mucous membrane of the mouth 
cavity and organs lying in it are frequently the seat of actinomycotic 
alterations. They appear either as superficial erosions, resembling 
lesions of the mucous membrane, or in the form of granules and 
tubercles in and upon the mucous membrane. Superficial foci may 
be confused with the sequelse of aphtha. The former are distin- 
guished from the latter by the fact that the floor of the ulcers, 

Fig. 52. 




B 




A, Beef tongue with typical actinomycotic affection (a); B, section through the 
primary focus (after Henschel and Falk). 



which feels leathery, is sprinkled with minute yellow spots ; the 
fungiform papillae are destroyed (Leutsch) ; and also by the fact 
that the destruction of the epithelium is not so sharply delimited 
from the erosions as in the case of broken aphthous pustules 
(compare Figs. 53, a, and 51, b). According to Henschel and Falk, 
the dorsal surface of the tongue at the transition point, between the 
body of the tongue and the tip, is the most frequent location of 
primary actinomycotic affections (Fig. 52, A, a). 



276 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



Henscliel and Falk called attention to the point that in many 
cattle (90 out of 985 inspected, or 9.1 per cent), epithelial lesions 
occur at the point above described. In the majority of cases these 
lesions represent an incipient actinomycotic infection (in the 985 
animals above mentioned, this was the case in 71, or 7.2 per cent.). 
According to Breuer, the frequency of primary lingual actinomyco- 
sis at the transition point between the body and tip of the tongue 
varied in cases observed in Budapest between 16 per cent, in sum- 
mer and 33 per cent, in winter. Schwaimair observed this altera- 
tion in 26 per cent, of the Bavarian cattle which he examined. 
"When an incision is made in the spot where the epithelium is want- 
ing, one generally finds small tubercles or small abscesses which 
contain actinomyces. Comparatively few of these foci are simple 



Fig. 53. 







Beef tongue with (a) actinomycotic erosions ; b, mushroom-shaped actinomycomata.. 
The tip of the tongue also exhibits the condition of wooden tongue. 



abscesses produced by pyogenic bacteria. In the foci in question 
on the tongue, one frequently finds small foreign bodies, grains, 
which are strongly penetrated with actinomyces. Henscliel and 
Falk ascribe the above-mentioned typical lingual affection of cattle 
to their peculiar mode of ingestion (retention of fungus-covered 
portions of food at the boundary between the moveable and fixed 
portions of the tongue. 

Breuer, on the other hand, considers it probable that the 
disease is associated with a peculiarity of the structure of the 
tongue. In cattle a crescent-shaped atrophy of the mucous mem- 
brane occurs in front of the dorsal ridge of the tongue, with destruc- 
tion of the filiform papillae. The smooth portion of the mucous 
membrane thereby becomes more easily injured than the other 
portions of the lingual mucous membrane. In accordance with this. 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 277 

explanation is the fact, established by Breuer, that the frequency 
of the disease in question increases with the age of the cattle. 

Tubercular actinotnycomata may occur upon the mucous mem- 
brane of the whole anterior portion of the digestive apparatus of 
cattle, from the lips to the fourth stomach. The tongue and 
mucous membrane of the mouth and pharynx are most frequently 
affected ; more rarely that of the first three stomachs. Actinomy- 
comata ordinarily sit upon the mucous membrane like mushrooms 
or conical or flat proliferations. The colonies of actinomyces upon 
their surfaces are readily distinguished from the red ground color 
as yellow spots (Fig. 53, b). 

Jolme has called attention to the ray fungus in the tonsils of 
hogs. Occasionally actinomycosis is also observed in the retro- 
pharyngeal lymphatic glands of cattle. 

Actinomycosis of the tongue is characterized by distinct ana- 
tomical forms. As already described, it may occur as a superficial 
process in the form of erosions. Furthermore, the disease may 
appear in two other forms : In the form of multiple tubercles of 
various sizes which lie scattered in the tissue of the tongue, and as 
diffuse induration of the tongue (wooden tongue). 

The tubercles may be readily detected by touch, especially 
while the animal heat is still present. Moreover, upon microscopic 
inspection, they exhibif the typical structure of actinomycotic gran- 
ulations. 

Wooden tongue, which is very frequent in cattle and has been 
observed once in sheep (Berg) and hogs (Schilling), is distinguished 
by its firm, unyielding consistency. On cross section, one observes 
a vigorous proliferation of connective tissue and an atrophy of the 
musculature of the tongue. The connective tissue proliferations 
include small and large colonies of the ray fungus. As a rule, 
wooden tongue is a partial alteration. A complete induration of the 
tongue rarely occurs, since animals affected with wooden tongue are 
soon slaughtered on account of the difficulty they experience in the 
prehension of food. 

Non-actinomycotic wooden tongue. — Pflug described several cases 
of non-actinomycotic wooden tongue. The tongues were hard, 
enlarged, white on cross section, and without a trace of muscular 
tissue (diffuse interstitial myositis). Later, Imminger reported sim- 
ilar cases. Furthermore, Kitt observed a fibroma of the tongue, 
which had likewise led to the formation of the so-called wooden 
tongue. 



278 



NOTEWOBTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



Tuberculosis. — Tuberculosis is frequently met with as a pri- 
mary affection in the lymph glands of the head (retro-pharyngeat 
glands in cattle ; tracheal lymph glands in hogs). Simultaneously 
a tuberculous alteration of the tonsils may exist. 

Morot claims to have frequently observed tuberculosis of the 
tongue. This assertion does not agree with observations in Ger- 
man slaughter-houses. In Germany, tuberculosis of the tongue is 
an exceptionally rare occurrence. In Berlin, for example, only one 
case of tubercular disease of the tongue was established during 
ten years. 

(b) Pharynx. 

Besides typical pharyngitis, the sanitary significance of which 
varies according to the degree of inflammation and the accompany- 



Fig. 54. 



Fig. 55. 




Bovine esophagus with ce'trus larva?. On 
the right a Jarva in naitral size. 



/ 



Sheep esophagus with 
sareosporidia. 



ing phenomena, specific changes occur in the mucous membrane of 
the pharynx in the form of hemorrhages, bloody serous and pure 
serous infiltrates, in petechial fever, anthrax, hemorrhagic septi- 
cemia, and swine erysipelas. Furthermore, the larvse of Gastrophi- 
his are frequently found in the pharynx of the horse. 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 279 

In the pharynx of the stag the larvae of Pharyngomyla picta and 
Cephenomyia rufibarbis ; in the roebuck, the larvae of C stimu- 
lator ; and in the reindeer, the larvae of C. trompe, are found. 

(c) Esophagus. 

In the mucous membrane of the esophagus of cattle one observes 
papillomata ; in cattle and sheep, the esophageal thread worm, Fila- 
aria scutata esophagea bovis ; and, finally, in the musculature of the 
esophagus of cattle, the larvae of Oestrus bonis (Fig. 54) ; and in the 
same location in sheep, goats and horses, one finds sarcosporidia 
(Fig. 55). 

(d) Stomach and Intestine. 

The most important abnormal conditions of the stomach and 
intestines are inflammations and parasites. 

Inflammations. — Inflammatory alterations may be of different 
sorts. All transition stages are observed from simple catarrh accom- 
panied simply with erythrism and swelling of the mucous mem- 
brane, to diphtheritic inflammation ushered in with necrosis of the 
mucous membrane. The judgment on this process should vary 
accordingly, as already stated in the chapter on general pathology. 
One point, however, ought to be again emphasized in this place: 
Simple gastric catarrhs, as well as simple non-febrile enteric 
catarrhs, are without sanitary significance. It is necessary, how- 
ever, to differentiate between these harmless diseases and septic 
diseases of the intestines of calves and cows, ushered in with high 
fever and great depression (see under " Diarrhea," " Emergency 
Slaughter " and " Meat Poisoning"). Schwaimair, by a regular inspec- 
tion of the second stomach of slaughtered cattle, demonstrated that 
traumatic inflammation of this organ is much more frequent than 
commonly supposed. Of 639 cattle inspected, 54, or 8.62 per cent, 
were affected with inflammation in consequence of injury by foreign 
bodies. The majority of the animals had exhibited no disturbance 
of health during life. 

Harms described a phlegmonous gastro-enteritis in cattle, 
which, as a rule, ran a fatal course. The mucous, muscular and 
serous coats were inflamed. A bloody content was occasionally 
found in the small intestines. Harms emphasized the fact that the 
meat of animals which were affected even with an advanced stage 
of phlegmonous gastro-enteritis did not show the slightest variation 
from the normal condition. In the case of cattle which were well 



280 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



nourished and seasonably slaughtered, Harms accepted the meat as 
fit for human food when it was necessary to assume a cold (?) as the 
cause of the disease. Torsion, invagination, and incarceration of 
the intestines may lead to inflammations which may become fatal in 
consequence of necrosis of the wall by perforative peritonitis. 
Croupous enteritis is observed in cattle either as an independent 
disease or as a symptomatic affection of malignant catarrhal fever 
and rinderpest. A hemorrhagic inflammation of the intestines is 
never absent in swine erysipelas. Croupous and diphtheritic 
inflammation of the mucous membrane of the posterior portion of 
the small intestine, as well as of the large intestine, is characteristic 
of hog cholera. According to Kitt, a diphtheritic intestinal inflam- 
mation may occur independently of hog cholera merely as a result of 
the necrosis bacillus. 

Finally, the intestines exhibit serious alterations in enteric 
anthrax. Swelling, erythrism and hemorrhages of the mucous 
membrane are observed, and, in severe cases, also hemorrhagic and 
sero-hemorrhagic infiltration of the mucosa and submucosa, so that 
the mucous membrane is forced into the lumen of the intestine in 
the form of flabby ridges, and sloughs off. The duodenum is com- 
monly affected most severely. 



Fm. 56. 



I 



TI'i, fli 



Ulcus Pepticum. — 
Peptic ulcer of the stom- 
ach is an affection which is 
observed in calves rather 
frequently at slaughter- 
houses. The author has 
called attention to the fact 
that round and elongated 
ulcers with sharp borders 
and without apparent cause 
may occur in the rennet of 
calves. Frequently death 
is brought about by per- 
forative peritonitis in con- 
sequence of the necrosis of 
the floor of the ulcer. Pep- 
tic ulcers may also occur 
in the duodenum. The 
frequency of the occur- 
rence of perforative peptic ulcer of the stomach in calves makes it 



' "■"' M 'JL ..a,. :iil..J .,,,/ d.j J ..,-/ ///' / .// / ./'- -; /, 

Calf abomasum with peptic ulcers of different 
sizes and depth. Largest ulcer is perforated. 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 281 

the duty of inspectors to observe carefully the peritoneal changes 
in these animals in every individual case. The inflammation is 
sero-fibrinous. The inflammatory erythrism of the peritoneum 
under the fibrinous deposit furnishes a certain means of diagnosis, 
even when the deposit is carelessly removed during the inspection. 
Judgment. — In perforative peritonitis, the meat must be con- 
sidered as an unwholesome food material (see "Sapremia"). If, on 
the other hand, peritonitis is absent and the floor of the ulcer shows 
a granular formation, the meat may be offered for sale as a market- 
able food material, provided the animal is in a good state of nutri- 
tion. Occasionally the perforation heals by a connective tissue 
union at the point of rupture between the omentum and the abdom- 
inal wall. 

Parasites. — The following parasites occur in the stomach and 
intestines : Gastrophllus equi (stomach of the horse) ; G. nasalis 
(pyloric portion of the stomach of the horse) ; G. pecorum and G. 
Acemorrhoidalis (stomach and rectum of horses and cattle) ; Amphis- 
tomum conicum (rumen and omasum of ruminants) ; Filaria micros- 
toma and F. megastoma (stomach of the horse) ; F. strongylina (stom- 
ach of the hog) ; Strongylus contortus and 8. ostertagi (fourth stomach 
of cattle, sheep and goats) ; 8. curticei (fourth stomach and small 
intestine of cattle and sheep) ; 8. oncophorus (fourth stomach and 
smallintestine of cattle) ; 8. harheri (fourth stomach of cattle) ; S. 
retortceformis (fourth stomach and small intestine of cattle, sheep, 
goats, roebuck, hares and rabbits) ; 8. filicollis (small intestine of 
sheep, especially in America) ; Gnathostomurn hispidum (stomach of 
the hog) ; Strongylus armatus (cecum and colon of the horse) ; 
Ascaris megalocephala (small intestine of the horse) ; A. lumbricoides 
(small intestine of the hog) ; Anoplocephala perfoliata, plicata, and 
mamillana (horse) ; Moniezia expansa (cattle and sheep). Lastly, 
pentastomum larvae are found in the wall of the small intestine in 
cattle and sheep. 

Strongylus ostertagi, but more frequently 8. contortus and Mon- 
iezia expansa, when present in large numbers, may cause serious 
nutritive disturbances (stomach-worm disease, caused by Strongylus 
contortus and 8. ostertagi), and tape-worm disease of lambs (caused 
by Moniezia expansa). Ascaris lumbricoides occasionally wanders 
into the bile ducts and causes icterus by the sudden obstruction of 
the flow of bile. 

Casefying nematode tubercles in the wall of the intestine. — In the 
submucosa of the small intestine of cattle, Drechsler discovered a 



282 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



nematode 1 to 1.5 mm. long, which -was located in small, round 
tubercles with green-colored contents (Fig. 57). Saake confirmed, 
this discovery soon afterward. The author has very frequently 
seen these tubercles in cattle killed at Berlin slaughterhouses. 
According to Strose, the round worm which is found in the tubercles 
is a larva of Anchylostomum {A. bovis). 

According to the thorough investigation of Strose, the parasitic 
enteric tubercles of cattle are found exclusively in the small intes- 

Pig. 58. 



Fig. 57. 




Bovine small intestine with submucous 
nematode tubercles. 



Larva of Anchylostomum bovis from 
a submucous tubercle of the bovine 
intestine (after Strose) X 25 diam. 



tine in varying numbers. The spherical, often somewhat flattened,, 
tubercles lie under the mucosa. They consist of a connective tissue 
wall and a green or yellowish-brown, caseous, crumbly content. The. 
size of the tubercles varies from that of a pin head to that of a pea. 
The larger tubercles, even before the intestines are cleaned, may 
"be seen from the outside through the muscular and serous coats. 

The nematodes (Fig. 58) which were isolated from the tubercles 
"by Strose were 2.83 to 3.85 mm. long and 0.16 mm. wide. 

In the small intestine of American sheep and cattle, Curtice*, 
also demonstrated nematode tubercles. In tubercles 1 cm. in diam- 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 28$ 

eter, Curtice found larvae and sexually-mature round worms to 
which he gave the name (Esopliagostomum columbianum. Further 
investigations are required to determine whether the European and 
American intestinal parasites are identical. Von Ratz came to the 
conclusion that the tubercles observed in European cattle contained 
0. ivfiatum. It should be remarked in this connection that nema- 
tode tubercles are frequently found in bovine intestines imported 
from America in such numbers that they look as if sprinkled with, 
them. In the intestinal wall of chickens, von Ratz demonstrated 
grayish-yellow tubercles from the size of millet seed to that of hemp 
seed, which were due to penetration of the small tape worm 
(Davainea tetragona) into the intestinal wall. The parasites were 
located inside the tubercles. The chronic intestinal inflammation 
caused by tetragona may appear in an epizootic form and may cause 
the death of a large number of fowls, especially young ones. 

Judgment. — According to the present state of knowledge, it can 
not be assumed that the parasites contained in the intestinal 
tubercles can be transmitted to man. On the other hand, intestines 
which are infested to a high degree with verminous tubercles are 
highly unfit for food in so far as the manufacture of sausage is. 
concerned. In case of slight infestation, the tubercles may be 
removed. Meat dealers must be made personally responsible for 
this removal, since the tubercles are not seen until the intestines 
have been prepared for market in the usual manner. 

Olt demonstrated another entozoic disease in the mucous mem- 
brane of the large intestine of hogs. In spring and summer at 
swelling and ulceration of a few or many follicles of the large 
intestine are observed in hogs. This infection occurs most fre- 
quently in the rectum and colon ; less frequently in the cecum and 
the parts anterior to it. In the caseous contents of the follicular 
tubercles, Olt discovered the larva of a round worm (Strongylus 
follicularis), 1.7 mm. long and 1 mm. in diameter. According to 
Liebe, this is not a new parasite, but a hitherto undescribed imma- 
ture form of Strongylus dentatus. 

Finally, Liebe discovered in the mucosa, occasionally also under 
the serous coat of the cecum and colon of sheep, tubercles varying 
in size from that of a pin head to that of a pea, with yellowish or a> 
yellow-green detritus. These tubercles likewise contained nematode 
larvae. According to Liebe, this is not identical with Drechsler's 
nematode or Ancliylostomum bovis. 

Judgment. — The statement already made with reference to judg- 
ment of the tubercles in bovine intestines holds good for the 



284 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



tubercles described by Liebe. On the other hand, the entozoie 
follicular tubercles discovered by Olt in the hog intestines require 
no further consideration in practical meat inspection, since they are 
removed in cleaning the intestines (by stripping the mucous mem- 
brane). 

Diagnosis and differential diagnosis of nematode tubercles of the, 
intestines. — The nematode tubercles in the wall of the intestiDes may 
be mistaken in superficial inspection for the products of tuberculosis. 
They are distinguished, however, from the latter by the gray or 



Fig. 59. 




Intestinal tuberculosis of cattle, a and b, lenticular ulcers ; c, tuberculous 
infiltration ; d, part of a tuberculous mesenteric gland. 

grayish-green color of the caseous material and by the integrity of 
the corresponding lymph glands. By crushing the caseous material 
with the addition of glycerin (Linstow) or dilute caustic potash, the 
round worms may be easily isolated. 

Other Alterations. — Among the other alterations in the 
stomach and alimentary tract may be mentioned hemorrhages under 
the visceral peritoneum (in intoxications and infections) ; hemor- 
rhagic infarcts (in the horse by emboli from aneurism of the 
anterior mesenteric artery); necrosis of the mucous lining of the 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 285 

anterior stomachs of cattle (caused by the necrosis bacillus); tumors, 
such as lipomata and sarcomata ; and, finally, actinomycotic and 
tubercular changes in all layers of the alimentary canal and on 
the intestinal peritoneum. Sarcomata may infiltrate the whole wall 
of the intestine for a considerable length, or may be deposited in it 
as tubercles. Primary tuberculosis of the intestine begins with the 
appearance of lenticular ulcers on the mucous membrane (Fig. 59, 
a and b) with which tuberculous infiltrations of the mucosa and 
submucosa become connected later by the degeneration of the 
superficial tubercles (Fig. 59, c). Tuberculous ulcers and infiltra- 
tions are surrounded with a wall-like border. Furthermore, the 
mesenteric glands regularly show a marked specific alteration (Figs. 
23 and 59, d). 

Kitt describes " papilloma polyposum omasi (myxomatodes) " 
as a frequent condition in the stomach of cattle. Papilloma of the 
omasum is usually multiple in all transition stages from simple 
papillary hyperplasia and papillomatous rosettes of the size of the 
double fist. According to Kitt, they are best compared in a fresh 
condition "with the fruit of Muscatelle grapes." The berry-like 
structures possess a firm, elastic consistency, the color being partly 
milk white, partly of a reddish flesh tint. Edema from obstruction 
lends a myxoma-like character to the papilloma.' 

(e) Peritoneum. 

The parietal fold of the peritoneum may exhibit the same 
alterations which have just been described as occurring in the vis- 
ceral layer and in the serous covering of the abdominal organs. 
This statement also holds good for the duplicatures of the 
peritoneum, omentum and mesenteries. Furthermore, there are 
certain processes which are peculiar to the parietal layer of the 
peritoneum, or have a predilection for it. 

Multiple Calcification. — The peritoneum of cattle frequently 
exhibits an interesting calcification which may be confused with 
incipient tuberculosis. The calcification is distinguished by the 
appearance of a few or countless flat elevations varying in size from 
that of a pin head to that of a lentil (Fig. 60). The latter are of a 
white color and upon microscopic examination it becomes apparent 
that the normal tissue of the peritoneum is interrupted by cloudy 
spots. The cloudiness is due to acicular depositions in close contact 
with one another in the larger tubercles. According to their chem- 
ical behavior, these deposits must be considered as lime salts. 



286 NOTEWOKTHY OKGANIC DISEASES 

Multiple calcification of the peritoneum is distinguished from 
tuberculosis (Fig. 61) by the complete absence of caseation, as well 
as by the flat form and the absence of tubercles ; also by the 
absence of an alteration in the corresponding lymph glands. 

Inflammations. — Peritoneal inflammations are closely connected 
"with alterations of the alimentary canal. From an etiological 
standpoint, inflammations of the urino-genital apparatus, especially 
of the uterus in female animals, and injuries of the abdominal walls 
are to be considered in this connection. All cases of peritonitis 
"which I have seen in slaughtered animals were caused by injuries 
of the alimentary tract, of the urino-genital apparatus, or of the 
abdominal wall, or by primary inflammations of these parts. 



Fig. 60. 

JillllK""" 



1 ill a 



tiu. 



i|0:t Fig. 61. 




mm W)&$$m 

W-- ■ 

\$%M ■' W 

Multiple calcification of the Serous tuberculosis of 

bovine pleura. cattle (pearl disease). 

Peritonitis of domestic animals is either purely fibrinous or 
sero-fibrinous, more rarely purulent. In extensive injuries of organs 
covered by the peritoneum, the exudation may decompose — ichorous 
inflammation of the peritoneum. Perforative peritonitis following 
injuries of the stomach and intestines is always of an ichorous 
character. This is the case also in so-called traumatic peritonitis of 
cattle, in which foreign bodies pass from the second or third stomachs 
into the body cavity. 

Inflammations of the peritoneum following rupture of the blad- 
der or in connection with necrotic cystitis are characterized by the 
intense urinous odor of the exudation. The odor clings to the 



DIGESTIVE APPAKATUS 287 

peritoneum even after washing out the abnormal contents with 
water ; otherwise inflammatory phenomena in urinous peritonitis, 
as a rule, are only slightly pronounced. 

Finally, we should mention the proliferating inflammation of 
the serous covering of the alimentary tract which may lead to an 
adhesion of the individual folds of the intestines. 

Judgment. — With the exception of the last-named proliferating 
process and urinous peritonitis, peritoneal inflammations are of 
great sanitary importance. The proliferating processes are of no 
significance. They simply prevent the use of the affected portions 
of the alimentary tract for customary market purposes. Urinous 
peritonitis renders the meat highly unfit for food, but not dangerous. 
In exudative peritoneal inflammations, on the other hand, the con- 
ditions are favorable for the resorption of toxines and the origin of 
general diseases (intoxication or infection). 

Fibrinous and purulent peritonitis in cattle may heal on account 
of the unusual insistence of these animals to fibrinous and purulent 
inflammations. The former heals by resorption of the exudation or 
a connective tissue adhesion of the affected parts ; the latter heals 
imperfectly by encapsulation of the pus. With regard to judgment 
on acute peritoneal inflammations and healed purulent peritonitis, 
see " Septicemia " and " Pyemia." 

Infectious pleuro-peritonitis of hogs. — According to the statistics 
of slaughterhouses, hogs are frequently attacked by a chronic 
inflammation of the pleura and peritoneum, in the course of which 
multiple, usually strongly encapsulated abscesses are formed. 

According to Grips, who investigated the disease, this is a 
specific infectious disease of hogs (see under " Infectious Diseases"). 

Biliary 'peritonitis. — Finally, mention may here be made of a 
so-called biliary peritonitis which sometimes occurs in sheep. This 
disease may arise when the liver or gall bladder is injured. In the 
cases which I have observed, an artificial communication had been 
formed between the bile duct and the body cavity by liver flukes 
which had left their customary habitat and had bored through the 
.liver substance and liver capsule. In biliary peritonitis, one finds 
s, thickening, especially of the lower parts of the parietal peritoneum. 
The thickened parts of the peritoneum possess a bluish-white sheen 
and are covered with a greenish, glistening, semi-fluid deposit. In 
one hog I demonstrated a similar alteration of the parietal and 
visceral peritoneum. In this case the cause was a rupture of the 
pregnant uterus from torsion. 



288 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

Other Alterations. — Of the other pathological conditions in 
the peritoneum, the following deserve mention : Melanin deposits in 
cattle, transudations and hemorrhages in rupture of the spleen and 
liver or in fresh perforation of the rectum and uterus, hemorrhagic 
infiltrations in anthrax, and sarcomata and carcinomata, as well as 
tuberculous granulations in the form of tubercles, pearl-like prolif- 
erations, and superficial deposits (Fig. 61). 

Multiple fatty necrosis. — Multiple necrosis may appear in the 
adipose tissue under the parietal fold of the peritoneum, between 
the folds of the mesentery and in the omentum. Fischoder 
described such a case in a hog which was not carefully investigated 
by the author and was named fatty necrosis. Numerous yellowish- 
white opaque areas of lardaceous consistency were observed in the 
fat tissue. The size of the areas reached that of a five-pfennig piece. 
Olt and Steuding subsequently reported several cases of fatty 
necrosis in domesticated animals. According to the investigations 
of Benda and Stadelmann, multiple fatty necrosis is a sequela of 
diseases of the pancreas, tumors, lesions of the pancreatic duct, etc.. 
The pancreas was also diseased in the case reported by Fischoder 
and in one of the cases described by Steuding. Jung produced local 
inflammation and fatty necrosis by the artificial introduction of 
trypsin and fresh pancreas into the body cavity of rabbits. He is 
of the opinion that the secretion of the pancreas, in consequence of 
a solution of the continuity of the latter, flows into the body cavity 
and causes fatty necrosis. 

In rendering judgment on the meat of animals affected with 
multiple fatty necrosis, the condition of the animals before slaughter 
and the general findings after slaughter should be determining 
factors. If the animal affected with fatty necrosis is healthy before 
slaughter and if, after slaughter, the necrotic areas are found only 
in the fat tissues, the disease is to be considered an insignificant 
local affection, so far as the meat is concerned. On account of the 
abnormal condition of the fat tissue, however, the meat is to be 
offered for sale under declaration, as unsuitable food material. 

Lipoma in adipose tissue of the abdomen. — According to Tiircks, 
in food animals which have undergone a long course of fattening, 
adipose tissue tumors appear in the omentum and in the fat tissue 
of the intestines and kidneys in the form of hard, knotty thicken- 
ings which are called " fat stones " by butchers. 

Mesenterial emphysema of hogs. — Mesenterial emphysema of hogs 
is a very remarkable disease which formerly was given the name 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 



289 



multilocular air cysts (Motz) and " air bladder mesentery " (pneu- 
matosis cystoides intestinorum, Maier). The first description of 
this interesting affection was by Maier in 1825. Kecently it has 
been described by Roth and Sehinutzer. However, mesenterial 
emphysema is well known to meat inspectors as a frequent and 
striking phenomenon. It is observed that the small intestine, 
especially that portion of it known as the jejunum, is fringed along 
the line of attachment of the mesentery with grape-like evaginations 



Fig. 62. 




,: 

Mesenteric emphysema in hogs'. 

and appendages of varying size which are formed of cysts containing 
gas (Fig. 62). The appendages are tightly distended and do not 
communicate with one another. The wall of the cysts is trans- 
parent and only exceptionally of a red color from hemorrhage. In 
addition to the conglomerate groups,, individual cysts appear, either 
in the intestinal wall and between the folds of the mesentery, or 
pedunculate on those parts. Accumulations of gas occur also in the 
mesenteric glands, sometimes to such a degree that the latter 
resemble sponge structures. The accumulation of gas, however, 
appears not to extend beyond the limits of the mesenteric glands. 
In connection with the gaseous cysts, solid tubercular- filiform 



290 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



Pig. 63. 



formations are found on the peritoneum. Gas analyses, which the 
author undertook, with the contents of cysts obtained under quick- 
silver, indicate the presence of oxygen, together with a preponder- 
ating content of an inert gas, nitrogen. This had been previously 
established by Maier, Roeckl, Zschokke, and Eoth. Dryer found 
in the cysts a mixture of 2.1 per cent. C0 2 , 20.8 per cent. O, and 
77.1 per cent. N. Krummacher, however, found, in addition to N, 
10 to 16 per cent. O, while C0 2 and H were wanting or present only 
as a trace. 

"With regard to the etiology of mesenterial emphysema, we are 
still entirely in the dark. The author made an extended investi- 
gation of the disease and in spite of abundant 
and excellent material, for the most part 
still possessing the animal heat, only nega- 
tive results were obtained. The investiga- 
tions of Roth were also without result on 
this point. He combats the idea of Eisenlohr 
and Dupraz that the disease is due to a 
pathological organism demonstrable by pre- 
sent methods of research. It is undoubtedly 
a process of mycotic origin, and the author 
believes from the conditions in numerous 
microscopic preparations that it is necessary 
to consider yeast cells as the cause of this 
process, which is observed only in the patho- 
logy of domestic animals. No success, how- 
ever, was had in cultivating the organisms in 
question. Schmutzer, with Krummacher, 
considers as excluded the possibility that the formation of the gas 
is due to micro-organisms, and is of the opinion that we have to do 
in this case with intestinal gases which have become changed in 
their composition by diffusion. 

Motz ascertained that multilocular air cysts occurred most 
frequently in hogs which are fed upon the waste products of the 
dairy, and this observation was confirmed by others. 

Judgment. — Mesenterial ephysema is found quite incidentally 
in hogs in perfect health and in good condition. Accordingly, and 
in view of the further unobjectionable character of the other vital 
organs and of the meat, this affection is to be considered as insig- 
nificant and of a purely local character No special measures are 
required with reference to affected parts of the intestine, since in con- 
sequence of the emphysema they can not be used as sausage casings. 




Cysticercus temricollis 
with artificially pro- 
truded scolex. 



DIGESTIVE APPAKATUS 



291 



Parasites. — The retro-peritoneal tissue, omentum, and mesen- 
tery furnish favorable situations for Cysticercus tenuicollis, which 
occurs there in sizes varying from that of a pea to that of a potato. 
Furthermore, echinococci and wandering liver flukes may occur 
under the peritoneum. Finally, in horses, Fllaria papiUosa has 
been observed free in the body cavity, as well as Strongylus armatus, 
which latter is also found under the parietal fold of the peritoneum ; 
and occasionally Spiroptera reticulata attached to the peritoneum. 

(f) Liver. 

Malformations. — Occasionally lobulation is entirely absent in 
hog livers, so that the liver appears like an amorphous mass (non- 

Fig. 64. 



jtigfew jet is*r& 




Beef liver with spotted capillary angiomatosis. 

lobulated or clump liver). Furthermore, double livers (livers with 
accessory livers) and livers with a congenital cyst formation are 
observed. 

In cattle one observes rather frequently a peculiar formation of 
the liver, which is described by Sluys, Koorevaar, Saake and Kitt, 
and was called by the latter spotted capillary angiomatosis. Such 
livers of the normal size and form exhibit numerous blue-black 
spots which become violet-red after lying for a long time and which 
occupy a deeper position than the normal liver surface (Fig. 64). 
The spots are of the size of a 25-cent piece, soft, and show a net- 
like structure on cross section. Blood is found between the meshes 



292 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

of the net, which occasionally is very rich in leucocytes. The 
meshes are furnished with an endothelium ; the lacunae are there- 
fore to be considered as enlarged capillaries and the whole anomaly 
a formation due to arrested development in consequence of the 
occasional failure of the liver cell cylinders to grow into the sup- 
porting substance. As a result, the capillary meshes are not suffi- 
ciently constricted (Kitt). 

Saake the younger, in connection with the publication of his 
father, investigated ten cases of hepatic angiomata and came to the 
conclusion that the disease in question is characterized by " mul- 
tiple bloody, infiltrated, blue-red areas varying in size from that of 
a millet seed to that of a cherry or even a walnut, and permeating 
the whole liver substance without changing the unaffected parts of 
the liver tissue." Microscopically, these areas are to be considered 
partly as hemorrhages, partly as angiomatous sinuses. In many 
cases alterations were observed in the blood vessels in the form of 
thrombi (eight out of eleven cases), liver cell emboli (six cases), 
rupture of the blood vessel (one case), infiltrations of the vascular 
walls with eosinophilous cells (five cases) ; also disintegration of the 
nuclei in the connective tissue cells of the walls into granular 
masses (two cases), transparent spherules in the blood masses and 
almost always proliferation phenomena in the connective tissue 
elements in the surrounding tissue. In these conditions, Saake sees 
a similarity with the changes described by Schmorl in the liver of 
eclamptic women, and his supposition that the hepatic alterations in 
question' in cattle are connected with the act of parturition, is con- 
firmed by the fact that the livers which he investigated came from 
cows. In four of the cases it was demonstrated that they had 
calved and the other was killed in consequence of parturient paresis. 
Saake, accordingly, does not agree with the interpretation of Kitt 
that we are dealing with congenital angioma, and he is strengthened 
in his dissenting opinion by the fact that, according to the experi- 
ence of veterinarians engaged in meat inspection, the disease is not 
observed in virgin heifers. 

Finally, Stockmann is disposed to consider the hepatic altera- 
tions in question as the sequela of distomatous cirrhosis of the liver 
and as a simple enlargement of the hepatic capillaries. This view, 
however, is opposed to the fact that angioma of the liver is also 
observed without coexistent cirrhosis. 

Judgment. — Livers affected with the above described alterations 
must be considered unfit for food, whether the affection is of the^ 
nature of angioma or hemorrhage. Special restrictions on the sale-- 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 



293 



of these livers is not necessary, since their nature is declared by 
their striking variation from the normal condition. 

Ruptures of the liver arise from the effect of violent mechanical 
shocks in the anterior abdominal region. A necessary condition, 
however, is an unusual discerptibility which usually is brought 
about by a strong fatty infiltration, as, for example, in fattened 
lambs. The animals die suddenly of hemorrhage. Upon post 



Fig. 65. 



Fig. 66. 





Fatty infiltration of the liver. 



Fatty metamorphosis of the liver. 



mortem examination a bloody infiltrated rupture in the liver is 
observed, in addition to blood in the body cavity. 

Judgment. — The meat of animals dead of rupture of the liver is 
to be considered the equal of that of animals slaughtered in the 
ordinary way, if evisceration occurs immediately after death. 

Atrophy. — Atrophy of the liver in old animals (horses and 
cows) has been discussed in the description of the normal structure 
of these organs. Furthermore, the so-called nutmeg liver occurs in 
food animals. This alteration is due to obstruction of the blood, in 
consequence of cardiac or pulmonary disturbances. The central 
veins of the acini of the liver become distended by the persistent 
obstruction, and bring about atrophy of the neighboring liver cells. 
The interior of the acini appears dark in color and the cortical zone 
is red-brown or yellow-brown. Simultaneously, a slight shrinking 
or enlargement of the liver occurs (atrophic and hypertrophic nut- 
meg liver). 

Judgment. — Nutmeg liver is decidedly abnormal and must be 
considered as unfit for food. 

Pigmentation. — A yellow discoloration of the liver is a regular 
symptom of hepatogenous icterus. By the aid of the microscope, a 
deposit of bilirubin crystals is found as a cause of the discoloration. 
^Melanosis of the liver is also observed in calves. 



294 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

A peculiar form of pigmentation of the liver is observed in 
Texas fever. The enlarged, superficially pale, on cross-section 
brownish-yellow, liver exhibits a delicate yellow network which 
encloses the trabecules of the liver cells. This pigmentation is due 
to a pronounced distention of the smaller bile ducts with thickened 
bile. In fresh preparations bile plugs of a Y form are conspicuous. 

Degenerations. — The degenerative conditions of cloudy swell- 
ing and fatty metamorphosis of the liver are of importance in meat 
inspection, since they are the first or, in premature slaughter, the 
only symptoms of serious infectious diseases and intoxications. With 
regard to the distinction between fatty metamorphosis and fatty 
infiltration, compare page 256. 

Rarely, amyloid degeneration of the liver is met with in food 
animals. The domestic hen has already been mentioned as the only 
exception. Livers affected with amyloid degeneration become 
enlarged, harder than normal, and of a dull gray color (spotted 
liver). In the horse, the firmness of the amyloid liver, according to 
Rabe, is about the same as that of wax while cooling, and later of 
the crumbling, soft consistency of half dried mortar. The livers of 
fowls affected with amyloid degeneration are friable, light yellowish 
red and to the touch are granular sandy (Kitt). 

Hemorrhages. — Hemorrhages occur in the liver in two different 
forms : As a symptom of the serious effects of an excess of carbon 
dioxid, infection, or intoxication ; and as a local affection in conse- 
quence of the destruction of the liver tissue by flukes which may 
have succeeded in boring through the bile duct and penetrating 
into the parenchyma of the liver. Hemorrhages of the first named 
sort are located under the capsule of the liver, and are of only slight 
extent, while traumatic hemorrhages may occur throughout the 
liver and are sometimes quite extensive. Traumatic hemorrhages 
terminate, as a rule, after resorption of the blood, in atrophic cir- 
rhosis of the liver or in abscess of the liver, when pyogenic bacteria 
are carried into the liver tissue by the fluke worm. The flukes 
which cause traumatic hemorrhages are usually found only after 
considerable search, for the reason that they are constantly moving 
through the liver tissue by means of the peculiar arrangement of 
spines on their integument. 

Judgment on traumatic hemorrhages of the liver is the same as- 
that for capilliary angioma. 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 



295 



Necrosis. — Multiple necrosis of the liver is met with in hog 
cholera. The necrotic areas appear cloudy and friable ; their struc- 
ture is obliterated ; otherwise the liver necrosis which occurs 
during the course of hog cholera is only of symptomatic value and 



Fig. 67. 




Necrosis of beef liver. Superficial foci. 

without sanitary interest. Necrotic processes, however, may occur 
in the liver as idiopathic local affections. Bang made known the 
fact that the necrosis bacillus (see under " Hog Cholera ") has the 
power of penetrating into the liver of cattle and of producing more 

Fig. 68. 




Necrosis of beef liver. Section through an affected liver. 

or less numerous necrotic areas, according to the extent of the 
emboli caused by its presence (bacterial necrosis of the liver). 
Occasionally the disease is associated with inflammation of the 
navel (the author). The necrotic areas which appear in bacterial 



296 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

necrosis of the liver are, as a rule, spherical, cloudy, firm, sharply- 
delimited, and surrounded by a red zone. The necrosis bacilli dis- 
covered by Bang are found in the necrotic areas in clumps, especially 
on the borders between the healthy and necrotic tissues. The liver 
may become enlarged to five times its normal volume. The liver 
tissue lying between the necrotic foci is usually discolored as in 
icterus. Later the necrotic areas become delimited from the neigh- 
boring tissue by tough capsules of connective tissue, while at the 
same time the necrosed portions soften and become modified into 
green, friable pus with an acid reaction. 

Judgment. — The necrosis bacillus has a decided tendency to 
localization It belongs to the anaerobic bacteria and loses its. 
vitality in blood. Bacterial necrosis of the liver is, therefore, to be 
considered from a sanitary standpoint as a local affection, and the 
meat of animals affected with this, disease as harmless. Neverthe- 
less, the sale of this meat must take place under declaration if the 
animal was slaughtered during the febrile stage of the disease, or 
if the icterus has developed in consequence of the necrosis. 

Inflammations. — The most frequent form of inflammation of the 
liver is interstitial hepatitis. This represents a chronic productive 
inflammation of the interacinous tissue which may lead to a consid- 
erable increase in volume (hypertrophic cirrhosis of the liver), or to 
a striking decrease in volume (atrophic cirrhosis of the liver). In 
both cases there is an active proliferation of the connective tissue 
of the liver. In atrophic cirrhosis of the liver, however, a partial 
destruction of the hepatic parenchyma and consequently a shrink- 
ing of the whole organ may occur as a result of the cicatricial retrac- 
tion of the newly-formed connective tissue. Hypertrophic cirrhosis 
of the liver is frequently observed in hogs to such a degree that the 
liver is enlarged to twice or three times its normal size and can no 
longer be penetrated with the finger. In the horse, cirrhosis of the 
liver is symtomatically an important phenomenon which accom- 
panies the so-called Schweinsberger disease, a form of pernicious* 
anemia; in cattle, it is a result of distomatosis. In the origin of cir- 
rhosis of the liver in hogs, feeding alcoholic by-products appears to 
play an important role (Tschauner). 

Judgment on productive inflammatory processes has already 
been discussed on page 262. Livers with a moderate formation of 
connective tissue should be admitted for sale without restriction. 
Those with a pronounced formation of such tissue, on the other 
hand, are unfit for food and should be sold under de'claration ; while 



DIGESTIVE APPAEATUS 297 

livers which have lost their normal consistency should be completely 
withheld from sale. 

Hepatitis with abscess is a second form of inflammation of the 
liver. It may arise from pathogenic bacteria transported through 
the umbilical veins in new-born animals or more rarely through the 
portal vein in inflammatory processes in the intestine, or through 
the hepatic artery in pyemia. In cattle, abscess of the liver may be 
a sequela of hepatic necrosis (page 295), Hepatic abscesses are 
commonly sterile, which fact is ascribed by Teissier to the bacteri- 
cide action of the hepatic glycogen. 

For judgment on hepatitis with abscesses, see under " Pyemia." 

Inflammation of the bile ducts. — The bile ducts (as well as the 
liver tissue) may be altered by inflammatory processes. The most 
frequent form of inflammation of the bile duct is distomatosis, char- 
acterized by a thickening of the walls and occasional calcification. 
A chronic inflammatory process may secondarily involve the liver 
tissue through the larger bile ducts, and may cause a partial or total 
cirrhosis. 

A chronic inflammation of the walls of the bile duct is observed 
to a slight degree in consequence of obstruction of bile by the pres-. 
-ence of biliary calculi in the efferent duct. A clear, greenish-yellow 
bile flows out of the thickened and distended bile ducts in such 
cases in contrast with the dirty, oleaceous substance which is dis- 
charged from bile ducts infested with liver flukes. 

. Judgment on inflammations of the bile ducts will be determined 
according to the degree of sympathetic affection of the liver tissue. 
As a rule, it is sufficient to remove the affected bile ducts for the 
purpose of putting the liver into marketable condition. 

Tumors. — The liver of food animals may be the seat of primary 
and secondary sarcoma and carcinoma. Furthermore, in hogs and 
calves, leukemic infiltration is observed as a symptom of leukemia 
and pseudo-leukemia. The liver in such cases is much enlarged, is 
light-gray or grayish-brown in color, and tough. A close examina- 
tion shows that the interacinous connective tissue is greatly 
distended in consequence of leukemic infiltration. 

For judgment, see under " Tumors " and " Leukemia." 

Multiple primary adenoma in the liver of the horse was 
described by Kitt. The liver was infested with hundreds of tubercles 
of different sizes, from a grain of sand to a potato. The tubercles 



298 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

were irregular in form, yellowish-white in color, and of a hard, 
elastic consistency. Tubercles were also found in the portal 
lymph glands. Under the microscope they exhibited numerous 
tubes of cylindrical epithelium which were forced together. 
Furthermore, adenoma of the liver is also observed in cattle and 
sheep. 

Martin made a report concerning cavernous tumors (cavities 
varying in size from that of mustard seed to that of a hazel nut and 
filled with blood). These tumors were present in the liver and 
other organs. 

Infectious Granulations. — Of the infectious granulations in 
the liver, mention should be made of tubercles, glanderous neo- 
morphs, actinomycomata and botryomycomata, the bacterial organ- 
isms of which are introduced into the liver either through the portal 
vein or through the hepatic artery. Hepatic actinomycomata arise 
regularly from one of the first stomachs. Direct invasion of the liver 
by actinomycomata from the anterior stomachs has been observed, 
as well as eruption of actinomycotic tumors in connection with 
wounds of the liver caused by infected foreign bodies which pene- 
trated the liver from the reticulum. That hepatic actinomycosis is 
not rare is shown by a statement of Rasmussen, who identified 
twenty-two cases of the disease in the abattoir at Copenhagen in the 
course of a year. 

Attention should be called to the fact that tuberculosis of the 
liver frequently occurs in hogs in a form which may easily be con- 
fused with simple interstitial hepatitis. Upon close examination,, 
however, casefied and calcified foci are observed in the strongly- 
proliferated interacinous connective tissue of tuberculous hog livers, 
quite aside from the fact that the portal lymph glands exhibit the 
most pronounced tuberculous changes. 

Parasites are very frequent in the liver, especially echinococci, 
flukes, Cysticercus tenuicollis, and, more rarely, pentastomum. All of 
these parasites will be considered in greater detail under " Invasion 
Diseases." Attention may here be called merely to the fact that the 
dangerous bladder worms, Cysticercus bovis and C. cellulosae, occur 
only in cases of most serious invasion and that in by far the greater 
number of cases of bladder worms in the liver, C. tenuicollis is the spe- 
cies concerned. The fact that the latter in its larval stage resembles 
externally the dangerous bladder worms (compare Fig. 69), has led 
to unwarranted condemnation of whole animals. 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 



299 



In hogs, one finds coccidia in the liver in addition to the above- 
named parasites. They produce tubercles varying in size from a 
pea to a walnut, with cloudy, brown, oleaceous contents, in the 
neighborhood of which a pronounced cirrhosis of the liver tissue is 
developed. 

Coccidiosis is of frequent occurrence in rabbits (Fig 70). 

The wandering of round worms iuto the bile ducts has already 
been mentioned. By sudden obstruction of the bile ducts, they 
bring about icterus and, under certain conditions, multiple necrosis 
of the liver (effect of retained bile). 

" Calcareous-fibrous " tubercles of the liver. — Yellow and yellowish- 
brown formations, varying in size f rom a pin head to millet seed, 
and characterized by Kitt as calcareous-fibrous tubercles, are 



Fig. 70 



Fig. 69. 




Young Cysticercus tenuicollis 
in situ (after Leuckart). 




Rabbit liver with coccidia. 



rather frequently observed in the liver of the horse. Kitt considers 
them " primary healed necrotic areas, such as may arise in omphalo- 
phlebitis of foals (embolic infarcts of minute caliber)." Dieckerhoff, 
on the other hand, regards them as a product of vegetable parasites. 
According to Willaeh, the tubercles appear, as a rule, to be of 
zooparasitic origin. On two occasions he found egg-shaped struc- 
tures in such tubercles which he considered to be eggs of an oxyuris. 
In the third case, Willaeh succeeded in demonstrating operculate 
eggs of a parasite in the tubercles ; and, in the fourth case, devel- 
opmental stages of a distome such as occur in the lungs. Von Ratz 
also observed dead specimens of a distome filled with eggs in 
calcareous-fibrous tubercles of the liver. Finally, Olt demonstrated 
jprematurely disintegrated echinococci in the tubercles. 



300 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

The reproductive power of the liver in partial destruction of 
[the liver tissue as a result of parasitic invasion is remarkable. The 
.infected parts of the liver show, according to the degree of destruc- 
tion, a greater or less increase in volume as a result of proliferation 
of the liver cells, of the biliary capillaries and of the connective 
tissue (PonfickV 

Cadaverous alterations. — The great susceptibility of the liver to 
decomposition by putrefactive bacteria is well known. In beef 
livers, however, one can observe the origin of putrefactive gas 
bubbles under the liver capsule within from one to two hours after 
slaughter. This unusually rapid decomposition is due to befouling 
the liver with the stomach contents ; for portions of the latter may 
pass into the open vena cava, thence into the hepatic veins, if the 
contaminating matter is not entirely removed, but merely washed 
off superficially. It would be advisable to open up the larger 
branches of the hepatic veins and wash them out. In consequence 
of its high content of glycogen, the liver may also undergo an acid 
fermentation (compare the chapter on " Post Mortem Changes "). 

(g) Pancreas. 

Diseases of the pancreas are rare occurrences in domesticated 
food animals. Concretions (pancreas stones) are found in the effer- 
ent ducts of the pancreas with comparative frequency. The efferent 
ducts of the usually simultaneously-indurated organ are enlarged 
and filled with milk-white concretions varying in size from a millet 
seed to a hazel nut. According to Bar, they are composed of car- 
bonate of lime, traces of carbonate of magnesia, and an undetermined 
organic substance. Furthermore, tumors are observed in the 
pancreas and, in tropical countries, also a parasite (Distomum pan- 
creaticum) in sheep, cattle and buffalo. 

Marek called attention to a frequent necrosis of the adipose 
tissue of the pancreas in old, fat, Mangalicza hogs. In such cases, 
irregular, sharply-defined tubercles, varying in size from a poppy 
seed to a pea, are found in the interacinous tissue of the pancreas, 
which, as a rule, is strongly developed. The tubercles at first 
possess a slight sheen ; later they become dull and cloudy ; their 
color varies from a yellowish- white to a grayish-yellow. The pan- 
creas increases in volume and its consistency becomes firmer as the 
number and size of the tubercles increase. In the most severe cases 
of the disease, the pancreas may enlarge five times and may form a 
firm, hard, bilobed body. The glandular tissue remains completely 



URINO-GENITAL APPARATUS 301 

Intact. This explains why the general condition of the animal is 
not disturbed in consequence of the disease, and especially why 
diabetes does not occur. Marek demonstrated by inoculation and 
microscopic examination that the disease studied by him was neither 
of an infectious nor parasitic origin. 

Judgment. — Marek rightly maintains that, according to the 
nature of this disease, an injurious effect upon the character of the 
meat can not be assumed to occur. In fact, the meat should be sold 
without restriction, if no changes have occured in other organs. 

3. — Urino-Oenital Apparatus. 

(a) Kidneys. 

Malformations. — The most frequent malformations of the kid- 
neys are unilateral congenital aplasia (with vicarious hypertrophy 
of the other kidney) ; unilateral or bilateral fissure of the kidneys, 
symphysis of both kidneys (horse-shoe kidneys), and congenital 
cystic kidneys. 

Lime and Pigment Deposits. — Deposition of lime is occasionally 
found in sheep in the form of striae in the medullary layer of the kid- 
neys, and frequently in cattle in the form of concretions in the renal 
pelvis (nephrolithiasis). As a rule, in the latter case there is at the 
same time a moderate chronic interstitial nephritis which leads to 
partial shrinkage. Furthermore, hemoglobin and bilirubin may 
be deposited in the kidneys. 

Degenerations. — With regard to degenerations of the kidneys 
the same statements may be made as with reference to the liver. 
Attention should be called, however, to the fact that cloudy swelling 
and fatty metamorphosis of the kidneys indicate a more serious 
diseased condition of the whole organism. Furthermore, in order 
to avoid errors in diagnosis, it should be noted that fatty infiltration 
occurs in the kidneys of fattened animals and causes a cloudiness 
similar to that of fatty metamorphosis (compare page 175). 

Hemorrhages in the kidneys are of diagnostic interest, for they 
may be symptoms of acute and chronic unhealed purulent pro- 
cesses ; for example, osteomyelitis. Furthermore, hemorrhages 
occur in the kidneys under the same conditions as in the liver. 

Infarcts. — The formation of infarcts may appear in the kidneys, 
since they contain terminal arteries. Hemorrhagic infarcts are 



302 NOTEWOBTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

conical, with the base outward. Their color is first red, then cloudy 
gray-yellow or yellowish-white. The issue in benign emboli is 
cicatrization ; in infectious cases, the formation of pus under certain 
conditions. Lustig described multiple formation of infarcts in the 
kidneys of a horse which was due to bilateral verminous aneurism 
of the renal arteries. 

Inflammations. — Inflammations of the kidneys are due to 
various conditions and are therefore of varying importance for meat 
inspection. Acute parenchymatous nephritis may accompany intoxica- 
tions, as excretion nephritis (from cantharides), or acute infectious 
diseases (swine erysipelas), and pyemic and septicemic processes. 
In such cases the kidney is swollen. 

Purulent nephritis is a second important form of renal inflam- 
mation. This is characterized by the appearance of numerous, 
mostly small, abscesses surrounded by red zones in the cortical and 
medullary layers of the kidneys. It may arise from a partial acute 
nephritis (purulent areolar nephritis); also from emboli (embolic 
purulent nephritis) ; and, finally, from a purulent process spreading 
from the urethra and bladder (pyelo-nephritis). In both of the first 
cases, the abscesses lie almost exclusively in the cortical layer ; 
while in pyelo-nephritis, they are primarily in the medullary layer. 

The author frequently observed ascending purulent nephritis 
associated with purulent cystitis in wethers, and once also in a calf 
in which a diphtheritic inflammation had extended from the 
urachus to the bladder and thence to the ureters and kidneys. 

Judgment. — In the last-mentioned cases, the meat had to be 
prohibited from sale, since the animals showed symptoms of acute 
pyemia. In purulent aerolar or embolic purulent nephritis, on the 
other hand, the animals may exhibit completely normal conditions 
in other respects. The meat of such animals is to be admitted 
to sale without restriction, if the primary foci are considered as 
healed. 

The third principal form of nephritis is chronic induration, 
so-called contracted kidneys, in which the surface becomes granu- 
lated and a symphysis arises between the renal capsule and the 
surface of the kidneys. 

Judgment. — Contracted kidney in food animals, according to 
present knowledge, does not possess as much significance with 
reference to the general condition as in man. It is of interest to us 



URINO- GENITAL APPARATUS 303 

merely as a local affection which should be judged analogously to 
cirrhosis of the liver. 

We are indebted to Kitt* for a comparative account of the 
forms of nephritis which occur in domesticated animals. This 
author distinguishes the following forms : 

Parenchymatous nephritis. — Parenchymatous inflammation of 
the kidneys is characterized by a moderate or not demonstrable 
swelling or by a ready separability of the tunica propria, greater 
prominence of the glomeruli, cloudy coloration, especially on cross 
section, greater fluid content of the latter, and hyperemia of the 
medullary substance. Hemorrhagic parenchymatous nephritis is 
a special parenchymatous nephritis which is characterized by the 
presence of numerous minute red hemorrhagic spots and is observed 
in typical development in swine erysipelas. Kitt proposes the term 
acute, diffuse nephritis and hemorrhagic nephritis for those condi- 
tions in which true inflammatory alterations and other conspicuous 
symptoms are present in high degree. 

Purulent renal inflammations. — These are either embolic (meta- 
static) or ascending (urogenous). Furthermore, purulent processes 
appear, the causes of which can not be demonstrated anatomically. 

In purulent embolic nephritis (punctate, disseminate, diffuse, 
mixed), the whole organ, especially the whole cortical region, is 
invaded by abscesses which are surrounded with a bright-red zone 
and dark-red hemorrhages. The renal pelvis is unchanged but may 
contain a bloody urine rich in leucocytes. Bacteria, especially 
groups of micrococci, are demonstrable in the purulent infiltrated 
regions. The process involves both kidneys. This form of nephritis 
appears to be more frequent in hogs, but is also observed in a 
perfectly typical development in the calf. Kitt applied the term 
mixed purulent nephritis to that form of inflammation which very 
frequently occurs in the calf and in which the hyperemic zone is 
smaller, while the whole cortex is discolored, dirty whitish gray, 
and oozes on section (combination of purulent degenerative inflam- 
mations and of those which lead to hyperplasia of the connective 
tissue). 

Ulcerative and vegetative endocarditis, pyemia, and pulmonary 
cavities are to be considered the causative factors of purulent 
nephritis. In this connection Kitt calls attention to the experiments 

* Monatsh. fur Praktische Tierheilk., IV, Nos. 11 and 12. 



304 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

of C» Frankel, who produced artificially a disseminate purulent 
nephritis by intravenous injection of Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus in 
rabbits (whitish areas of the size of a bean or extensive pyramidal 
infarcts). 

The larger encysted purulent areas in the kidneys are charac- 
terized by Kitt as apostematous nephritis (abscess or apostema of the 
kidney). Kitt distinguishes apostematous perinephritis and para- 
nephritis, perirenal abscess and pyonephrosis. Apostematous 
nephritis may be of embolic, urinous, and, perhaps, also, of traumatic 
origin. 

Kitt considers the comparatively frequent "white spot kidneys 
of calves " (nephritis fibro-plastica or nephritis maculosa alba, 
according to Kitt) as a transitional stage between acute and chronic 
inflammation. The macroscopic alterations in white spot kidney 
are sufficiently well known to all meat inspectors. We are indebted 
to Rieek for a detailed description of this condition. According to 
Kitt, fibro-plastic nephritis is " either from the very beginning a 
progressive process of induration, perhaps caused by micro- 
organisms which are not pyogenic and which pass through the 
kidney ; or it is the second stage of a purulent nephritis * * * 
in which the slight exudative deposit in small quantities is- resorbed 
or removed through the urinary canal, and productive inflammation 
becomes predominant." The regular affection of both kidneys, the 
wedge shape, disseminate, or multiple arrangement of the white 
areas, and the frequent presence of red borders and hemorrhages 
are unmistakable signs of the embolic hematogenous character of 
the white spot kidney of calves. Kitt agrees entirely with Eieck, 
who, as is well known, described the disease in question as multiple 
embolic nephritis of calves. Fibro-plastic nephritis seems to 
disappear during the first years of life, but may, however, lead to 
multiple, diffuse sclerosis of the kidneys. 

Glomerulo-nephritis is another inflammatory disease of the 
kidneys which is a forerunner of diffuse nephritis. A diagnosis is 
to be reached only on the basis of a microscopic investigation. 

Kitt characterized as mixed nephritis those conditions in which 
interstitial inflammation and degenerative changes of the epithelium 
exist simultaneously. The kidneys are firmer than normal, cloudy, 
and red-yellow or gray spotted. The disease occurs from unknown 
causes in hogs. 

Indurative nephritis. — Inflammations of the kidney, in which the 
most important phenomena are connective tissue proliferation, 



URINO-GENITAL APPARATUS 305 

sclerosis, or induration, are described "by Kitt under the general 
name indurative nephritis (chronic fibrous nephritis). He distin- 
guishes multiple depositions and absorption of connective tissue, 
which are frequent in cattle, as sclerosis maculata sive virgata, and 
diffuse hyperplasia of the connective tissues or sclerosis totalis sive 
diffusa renum. In extreme cases, which are occasionally observed 
in cattle, the kidneys are abnormally large, unusually hard, some- 
times cut with difficulty, and grate on section (lime deposition). If 
the newly-formed connective tissue shrinks, a contracted kidney is 
formed, nephritis granulata (ren retractus). 

Nephritis fibro-vesiculosa represents a rare form of inflamma- 
tion. It is characterized by a cystoid degeneration of the urinary 
canal and by the formation of watery cysts which are thereby 
produced. The process is observed in a granular diathesis and also 
in simple induration of the kidneys. 

Finally, bacterial nephritis of cattle is to be distinguished as a 
special form of inflammation (see below). 

Among the renal inflammations mentioned above, fibro-plastic 
nephritis of the calf and bacterial pyelo-nephritis of old cattle possess 
considerable importance in meat inspection. 

Fibro-plastic nephritis. — According to Rieck, this is the most 
frequent disease of calves. Among 26,000 calves which were slaugh- 
tered in the abattoir of Leipsic during the first half of 1890, Reick 
found pathological processes which led to condemnation in only 
seventy-two cases, and of these twenty-four, or 33§ per cent., were 
kidney diseases. Multiple embolic nephritis, for which, from 
reasons given above, Kitt chose the term nephritis fibro-plastica, 
constituted the largest contingent of pathologically-altered kidneys.. 

Etiology. — According to the very plausible assumption of Kitt,, 
the cause of fibro-plastic nephritis is to be found in micro-organisms 
of a particular species or pyogenic bacteria which have lost their- 
peptonizing power and, therefore, exercise merely a stimulating 
action upon the formation of connective tissue. Rieck found in one 
case in which the foci had the appearance of putrefactive degenera- 
tion, micro-organisms of various forms, and in another equally 
recent case, structures which resembled the mycelia of mold fungi. 
Kabitz demonstrated the presence of bacilli, streptococci, and 
staphylococci in the diseased foci. The point of origin of fibro- 
plastic nephritis — that is, the organ from which the micro-organisms 
of fibro-plastic nephritis pass into the blood circulation — can not, as 
a rule, be determined at slaughter. As Reick indicated, the navel 



306 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



can not be assumed to be the point of origin. It is more probable 
that the disease in question arises from the excretions of infectious 
material through the kidneys, in connection with frequent intestinal 
inflammation in calves. Eieck states that he was unable to deter- 
mine any retarding influence of the disease upon the development 
of the animals. Vaerst considers spot disease of kidneys, not as 
products of pathological processes, but as the remains of incom- 
pletely-developed kidneys — blastem tubercles. 

Judgment.— Fibro- plastic nephritis in calves in the majority of 
cases represents the last phenomenon of a general disease which 
has run its course. In favor of this hypothesis we have the absence 
of a primary alteration and the good nutritive condition of the 

Fig. 71. 







White spot kidney (nephritis fibroplastica) of the calf. 



animals. In all these cases fibro-plastic renal inflammation has 
significance only as a local affection. The affected kidneys are to 
be prohibited from sale as highly unfit for food on account of their 
great deviation from the normal ; while no restriction should be 
placed upon the sale of the meat. Vaerst also favored the admission 
of altered kidneys after convincing himself of their harmlessness and 
good flavor after roasting. In extremely rare cases, in which, in 
addition to the kidney disease in question, acute alterations exist in 
other organs, it is necessary to proceed according to their special 
characters (see under " Pyemia "). 

Bacterial Pyelo-nephritis of Cattle. — This disease of the kidneys is 
important on account of the frequency of its occurrence, and also 



UMNO-GENITAL APPARATUS 307 

I 

for the reason that when the bilateral affection occurs it may cause 
a serious disturbance of the general condition. In unilateral pyelo- 
nephritis, on the other hand, as a rule, such disturbances are not 
observed. 

Pathological Anatomy. — In an examination of the body cavity 
the inspector notices first an enlargement and thickening of one or 
both ureters. After removing the kidneys from their protective 
covering, one observes that the kidney fat tissue has undergone a 
serous infiltration and that the kidneys are enlarged and the surface 
is either completely gray or spotted with gray. The most important 
changes, however, appear only on sectioning the kidneys. The 
renal pelvis is greatly enlarged and fully distended with a gray, 
slimy, purulent secretion of an ammoniacal odor. Triple phosphate 
crystals are found in the secretion. The mucous membrane of the 
renal pelvis and the adjacent medullary layer show swelling and 
diphtheritic ulcers. Cloudy streaks may be observed passing from 
the renal pelvis through the medullary layer to the cortical layer. 
Furthermore, small abscesses are found in the medullary and 
cortical layers. 

Etiology. — As the investigations of En- 
derlen and Hoflich have shown, pyelo- Fig. 72. 

nephritis of cattle is caused by the so-called f ^ 
kidney bacillus (Bacillus bovis renalis, Bol- ^li>i. j$$f 

linger). It is 2 to 3 pi long and 0.6 to .7 pi ' "" ;"£,,, "^ 

wide, sometimes slightly curved and rounded ±J £#l& 
at the ends (Fig. 72). The kidney bacillus is f f$f' 

non-motile and is easily distinguished from ^f- 
related bacteria by the fact that it is -K-' •- c 

strained by the Gram method. In a case of ^^ 
pyelo-nephritis of cattle, Cadeac and Morot 
found a pure culture of Bacillus pyocyaneus. Bacillus bovis renalis. 

Judgment. — In an appendix to the work 
of Enderlen, Bollinger called attention to the fact that the kidney 
bacillus of cattle is characterized by its strict localization in the 
renal pelvis and tissue of the kidney. It shows no tendency to 
generalization. 

Unilateral pyelo-nephritis, as already mentioned, is frequently 
observed quite unexpectedly in well-nourished animals. In such 
cases the inspector should simply remove the affected kidney and 
ureter. If, however, both kidneys are involved and the disease has 
already led to extreme emaciation or to retention of the urine, the 
meat of affected animals is to be wholly excluded from human con- 



308 



NOTEWOBTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



Jgumption as highly unfit for food. In the latter case a urinous or 
ammoniacal odor develops during the cooking of the meat (see under 
"Uremia"). 

TuMOES. — In the kidneys of food animals fibro-sarcoma and car- 
cinoma (adeno-carcinoma) are observed. Furthermore, in leukemia 
the kidneys are altered specifically (enlarged and grayish-white in 
consequence of leukemic infiltration). Sarcoma and carcinoma 
appear either as a primary affection in the kidneys or develop here 
metastatically during general sarcomatosis and carcinomatosis. 
Primary carcinoma and sarcoma may attain considerable size. The 
author observed a case of renal carcinoma in a hog in which the 
affected kidney weighed 18 kg. Rieck described a case of adeno- 
sarcoma in the kidney of the hog in which the organ was changed 
into a spherical mass of 3.| kg. weight. Tumors of metastatic 
origin were present in large numbers and sprinkled everywhere in 
the healthy tissue. 

Infectious Granulations. — Through hematogenous infection 
the development of the tubercles of glanders or tuberculosis may 

Fig. 73. 




^ » 



Bovine kidney with tuberculosis in different stages in the individual renculi. 

a, solitary young tubercle with incipient caseation; Z>, numerous tubercles of the 

same sort; c, older totally casefied tubercles; d, totally tuberculous renculus. 

occur in the kidneys, and rarely, in cattle, actinomycomata may- 
appear. 



URINO-GENITAL APPARATUS 



309 



Tuberculosis of the kidneys first appears in the form of minute 
gray tubercles (Fig. 73, a and b) which remain scattered or 2orm 
larger groups by a local dissemination (Figs. 73 c and 74). In the 
latter case, individual renculi may be completely destroyed (Fig. 
73 d), while the rest of the kidney remains intact. Renal tubercu- 
losis is distinguished from other changes in the kidnevs by the 
presence of spherical tubercles with casefied centers (Fig. 7 3, a 
and b). 

Fig. 74. 




Section of a beef renculus with tubercles in the medullary and cortical layers. 

Parasites are rare in the kidneys. They are the usual seat of 
JUiistrongylus gigas. Moreover, Sclerostomum equinum, cysticerci, and 
echinococci sometimes occur in the kidneys. 

Natterer found a nematode (Stephanurus clentatus, Diesing) ir 
the fat capsule of the kidney in a Chinese breed of hogs. Accord- 
ing to Leuckart, the parasite which he named Sclerostomum pingui- 
cola, is occasionally found in our hogs in the fat capsule of the 
kidney. The male is from 20 to 26 mm. and the female from 30 to 
36 mm. long. Raillet and Lucet demonstrated in emaciated geese 
white tubercles of the size of a pin head, consisting of masses of 
oval structures resembling Coccidium oviforme (coccidiosis rencdis). 



(b) Bladder and Urethra. 

The changes to be considered in this connection may be briefly 
dismissed since serious diseases of the bladder and urethra, involv- 
ing the general condition, are rare in domestic animals. Only in. 



310 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

oxen and wethers are diseases of the efferent urinary passages 
frequent, since in these animals cystic calculi are frequently formed. 
When large, the calculi may stop in the S-shaped curvature of the 
urethra, and lead to a rupture of the bladder with urinary peritonitis 
as a result, or to necrosis of the adjacent portion of the urethra with a 
urinous infiltration of the tissue surrounding the urethra. These 
sequelae have all been discussed (see pages 273 and 286). 
Compared with these occurrences, the other alterations of the 
bladder and urethra possess but slight practical importance. With 
necrosis of the urethra from retained calculi a serious diphtheritic 
urocystitis may be associated (ascending infection of the contents of 
the bladder), and with this in turn a peritonitis may be associated 
(in partial necrosis of the wall of the bladder). In and of them- 
selves, cystic calculi cause only slight superficial changes of the 
mucous membrane, even when they are present in large num- 
bers. A cystic catarrh of greater or less severity is observed in 
cows after parturition ; but, as a rule, it runs a purely local 
course. 

A specific uro-cystitis appears to be the cause of "bloody 
urine," or hematuria, enzootic in cattle in the Black Forest. Arnold 
considered coccidia to be the cause of the disease which, from a 
pathologico-anatomical standpoint, was characterized as a chronic 
productive cystitis with papillomatous and polypous neomorphs of 
the mucous membrane which showed a tendency to hemorrhage 
(Gmelin). 

Finally, an emphysema may occur in the mucous membrane of 
the bladder, caused by gas-producing bacteria. Bunge described a 
case of this sort in which the disease affected simultaneously the 
mucous membrane of the renal pelvis. 

Among the specific granulations, actinomycomata are observed 
in the urinary bladder (Ernst). 

(c) Male Sexual Organs. 

Of the diseases of the male reproductive organs, mention is 
required only of tuberculosis of the testicles. This is quite 
often observed in bulls and boars (Johne, Lydtin, Hess, Kitt, 
Schmidt, Laurie, et al.). Usually both testicles are completely 
casefied. The weight of a tuberculous testicle may reach 10 kg. 
Frequently tuberculous alterations are also met with on the surface 
of the testicles and sheath (Kitt and the author). 



URINO- GENITAL APPARATUS 311 

(d) Female Sexual Organs. 

The most important changes in the region of the female repro- 
ductive organs are in the uterus, and the least important in the 
ovary. The diseases of the latter may be disregarded. 

Uterus. 

In the uterus the following phenomena are of importance : 

Abnormal Contents. — The occurrence of mummified fetuses 
(lithotheria) or of dead fetuses undergoing maceration in the uterus 
should be mentioned only incidentally. The so-called foul fetuses 
alone possess significance (see under " Sapremia "). 

Lacerations frequently occur in difficult parturition. They are 
almost always dangerous lesions, for they may cause death immedi- 
ately through hemorrhage or gradually through infectious peritonitis. 
The case described above (page 287), of laceration of the uterus 
during torsion, forms an exception ; likewise laceration during 
closure of the os uteri. In these cases bacteria are excluded ; when, 
however, torsion is accompanied with necrosis of the affected parts 
of the body of the uterus or of the vagina, a fatal infectious 
peritonitis occurs. 

Inflammations. — The inflammations of the uterus deserve the 
most serious attention of sanitary officers. For, as the history of 
cases of meat poisoning teaches, they may, under certain conditions, 
render meat highly injurious to health. In this connection the 
acute inflammations which are associated with gross lesions of the 
uterine wall in retention of placenta or with decomposition of the 
fetuses seem to be especially dangerous (inflammations with mal- 
odorous exudation). In no other organs are equally favorable 
conditions found for the resorption of harmful materials as in the 
uterus immediately after parturition. For further details of acute 
metritis, see under " Septicemia." 

Catarrh. — In contrast with the acute inflammations of the 
mucous membrane of the uterus, the superficial processes, chronic, 
slimy and slimy-purulent catarrh of the uterus play an unimportant 
role in meat inspection. They frequently develop pronounced 
local affections in connection with infectious vaginal catarrh or 
infectious abortion and are frequently met with unexpectedly in 
well-nourished animals. When of a more serious character, chronic 



312 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

uterine catarrh may be accompanied with emaciation. In such cases 
the meat is to be considered unfit for food. Injuries to health from 
eating the meat of animals which are affected with uterine catarrh 
have never been observed, although the meat of such animals is 
almost always used for food. 

Tumors of the uterus are quite often observed in cows. As a 
rule, they are fibromyomata (liomyomata). In several cases the 
author also observed diffuse sarcomatous infiltration of the whole 
wall of the uterus whereby it underwent an enormous enlargement. 
On sectioning a uterus altered in this way, the wall is found to be 
much thickened, white and firm ; the mucous membraue, on the 
contrary, is atrophied. Occasionally, moreover, carcinoma of the 
uterus is observed in food animals. 

Tuberculosis. — Tuberculous affection of the uterus may appear 
in three forms : (1) As primary uterine tuberculosis produced by 
coitus. This form is characterized by the formation of ulcers and 
an abnormal secretion of the mucous membrane. (2) A second 
form is embolic uterine tuberculosis with eruption of tubercles 
under the mucosa. (3) The third and most frequent form is that 
which develops in chronic peritoneal tuberculosis by. the spreading 
of the infection to the wall of the uterus. In the latter case a great 
increase in thickness may occur through tuberculous infiltration of 
all the layers of the uterine wall. Through subsequent calcification 
the uterus may become a cavity inclosed with inflexible walls, in 
which a cloudy, slimy, purulent secretion is constantly present. 

A tuberculous affection of the oviduct is usually associated with 
uterine tuberculosis. The oviducts alone may be affected in the 
same way as the uterus, in connection with peritoneal tuberculosis. 

Animal Parasites are not found in the uterus. 

Vagina. 

In the vagina we observe inflammatory conditions either of an 
independent nature (pustular eruption, purulent catarrh), or as 
symptoms of general diseases (rinderpest and malignant catarrhal 
fever). Pustular eruption and catarrh are without interest to meat 
inspectors, since they represent local alterations and the parts in 
question are not used as food. Furthermore, attention should be 
called to the fact that the vaginal lesions do not possess the same 
significance as lesions of the uterus, for, as a rule, the former occur 



URINO-GENITAL APPARATUS 313 

in parts of the vagina which are without peritoneum and may, 
therefore, heal like simple wounds, without complications. 

Fatal hemorrhages have been observed in consequence of 
injuries received during copulation (Beisswanger). More frequently, 
however, urinous infiltrations oocur in the connective tissue within 
the pelvic cavity in consequence of injuries to the urethra received 
during copulation. 

, Finally, tuberculous alterations may appear in the mucous 
membrane of the vagina in the form of granules, tubercles, and 
ulcers. Moreover, in vaginal tuberculosis, Gartner's ducts are 
modified into firm strands which may be as thick as the finger. 

Dieckerhoff described a contagious vaginal inflammation, sui 
generis, under the name " pernicious colpitis." This apparently 
rare disease forms an exception to the other diseases of the vagina, 
since it does not run a local course, bat causes a fatal general 
disease. The meat is to be judged as in septicemia from wounds. 

Udder. 

Physiological Conditions. — Physiological hypertrophy is 
observed in the udder during laceration and atrophy after this 
period of activity in the gland. The udder during active milk secre- 
tion is enlarged aud hangs flabbily on the abdominal wall. An 
atrophic udder, on the other hand, is small and may be enclosed 
and penetrated with fat to such an extent that apparently little 
remains of the mammary tissue. In heifers and young ewes in the 
condition of medium fatness, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish 
the glandular tissue from the fat tissue. 

Black Pigmentation, as already mentioned (page 269), frequently 
occurs in the mammary region. The author observed a deposition 
of lime in the udder of a cow which was not of parasitic origin, but 
which occurred in an udder of normal size with perfect integrity of 
the supramammary lymph glands. 

Mammary Edema. — In pregnant cows shortly before parturition, 
transudation occurs in the region of the udder in the form of so-called 
mammary edema. After the removal of the skin a clear amber- 
yellow serum, with slight admixture of corpuscular elements from 
blood, oozes out of the edematous udder. Inflammatory phenomena 
are absent and mammary edema is thereby distinguished from 
mammary phlegmon. 



314 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

Inflammations. — Inflammations of the udder are of the highest 
importance. No animal is so frequently affected with mammary 
affections as the cow, and this fact is sufficiently explained by its 
intensive milk production. Favorable conditions for bacterial infec- 
tions are thus brought about. Distinction may be made between 
parenchymatous mastitis, in which the secreting glandular tissue is 
primarily affected, and phlegmonous mastitis, which runs its course 
in the connective tissue stroma of the udder. 

Parenchymatous mastitis may exhibit all degrees of inflamma- 
tion, including necrosis. As a rule, however, mammary inflammation 
is a benign affection which may terminate with the destruction of 
the glandular substance, but affects the general condition only 
slightly or temporarily. 

In phlegmonous mastitis one observes, in contrast to mammary 
edema, a diffuse redness and hemorrhages in the serous infiltrated 
tissue, and numerous white and red blood corpuscles in the exuda- 
tion. 

Judgment. — The common parenchymatous and phelgmonous 
inflammations of the cow's udder, which are so frequently called to 
the attention of veterinarians, possess only slight sanitary impor- 
tance, since they are local affections. Those mammary inflammations 
in the cow which are characterized by the formation of numerous 
abscesses and frequently occur as sequelae of aphtha and also septic 
mastitis in sheep, form the only exceptions to this statement. 

' Judgment on the meat in the latter case should be governed as 
in septicemia. In mastitis with abscess formation, on the other 
hand, judgment should be rendered according to the principles 
observed in cases of suppuration and pyemia (see "Pyemia "). 

Individual cases of mammary inflammation in cows have occa- 
sionally attained significance from the fact that they produced meat 
poisoning (meat poisoning in the towns of Cotta, Wurzen and Riesa). 
Johne and Gartner, who investigated the first mentioned case of 
meat poisoning, assumed that the case in question was caused by 
mastitis due to Bacillus enteritidis of Gartner. This case of mastitis, 
as well as those which have become known on account of cases of 
meat poisoning in Wurzen and Riesa, were distinguished from 
ordinary cases of inflammation of the udder by their serious effect 
upon the general health of the animal. The health was so affected 
that slaughter was necessary. 

Etiology of mastitis. — On the etiology of mammary inflammations 
we have the following investigations : Kitt, following the teachings 



URINO-GENITAL APPARATUS 315 

of Ludwig Franck, that parenchymatous mastitis arises by infection, 
tested the effect of several bacteria by injection into the udder. In 
these experiments it was found that the organism of malignant 
edema, Oidium lactis, Micrococcus tetragenus, and cultures of soor 
could be injected into the milk cisterns without harm. Even 
Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus produced only a temporary swelling of 
the udder. In the subcutaneous connective tissue, however, the 
bacilus of malignant edema produced an acute inflammatory edema. 
An injection of the bacilli of blue milk and of fowl cholera caused a 
catarrhal mastitis. The " bacteria of mastitis " isolated by Kitt 
from others spontaneously affected with mastitis, invariably pro- 
duced an acute indurative purulent mastitis. Kitt's mastitis 
bacteria must, therefore, be considered as the cause of the ordinary 
mammary inflammations. The disease can neither be transmitted 
to rabbits and mice subcutaneously, nor to hogs and guinea pigs by 
feeding. 

Bang succeeded in isolating specific streptococci as the cause of 
a chronic mammary inflammation and from other inflammed udders 
he made cultures of streptococci, diplocci, staphylococci and bacilli, 
which, when injected into the milk cisterns, produced an inflamma- 
tion of the udder. Bang demonstrated the same effect hm the 
streptococci of contagious coryza. Guillebeau found Staphylococcus 
mastitidis, also Galactococcus versicolor, G. flavus, and G. albus to be 
the pathological organisms of mammary inflammations. Jonge suc- 
ceeded in causing an acute mastitis by injecting Bacillus enteritidis 
(Gartner) into the milk cisterns. In so-called "yellow going dry," 
which almost invariably leads to atrophy of the udder, Nocard, Mol- 
lereau, Hess, Borgeaud, and recently Zschokke, demonstrated long 
streptococci {Streptococcus mastitidis contagiosae) as the cause of the 
disease. The streptococcus is not pathogenic for mice, guinea pigs, 
rabbits, dogs, or hogs. 

All the mastitis bacteria mentioned above are characterized by 
strict localization in the udder. This is not the case, however, with 
Micrococcus mastitidis gangrcenosce ovis, which Nocard isolated in 
gangrenous mastitis of sheep. This organism has the power to 
produce in the udder a septicemia which spreads and causes the 
death of the animal within a few days. 

Tumors in the udder are common in only one domestic animal 
— the dog. They occur as chondrofibroma, lipoma, osteoma, 
myxoma, sarcoma, and carcinoma. The latter may arise primarily 
in the udder and may cause the formation of metastases. Accord- 



316 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



ing to Kitt, in the larger domestic animals, mixed tumors, usually 
adenofibromata, occur in the udder. Rabe also described a case of 
hard cancer of the udder in a cow, with the formation of metastases 
in the lungs. It is well known that in white horses the udder is the 
most frequent seat of melano-sarcoma. Finally, in cows we fre- 
quently observe papilloma upon the integumentary covering of the 
udder. 



Infectious Granulations. — The udder is frequently the seat of 
infectious granulations. In the horse botryomycoma is most com- 
mon, while in cattle tuberculous alterations and actinomycomata 

Fig. 75. 




Mammary tuberculosis. Affection of both left quarters. 

are most frequently developed. In the hog the mammary gland 
must be considered as the most common seat of actinomycotic 
affections. 

Botryomycosis of the udder is characterized by the presence of 
hard, firm, knotty swellings in the mammary parenchyma, by 
adhesion of the skin with the affected parts, and by the formation of 
fistulse with a slight discharge of pus mixed with minute structures 
resembling grains of sand. 

Tuberculosis of the udder occurs in from two to four per cent, 
of all tuberculous cows and may appear in two chief forms : Tuber- 



UKINO-GENITAL APPARATUS 317 

cular and diffuse mammary tuberculosis. In the first named form, 
tubercles up to the size of a man's fist may be found in the other- 
wise healthy mammary tissue. The tubercles are hard, firm, 
papillated on the surface, and exhibit caseation and calcification. 
Moreover, the tuberculous areas are readily distinguished from the 
pure white or yellowish-white mammary tissue by their pronounced 
gray color. The diffuse affection, which was well described by 
Bang in his classical treatise on tuberculosis of the udder, leads to 
enormous enlargement and induration of single quarters of the 
udder. The whole udder rarely appears to be involved in the 
tuberculous processes. One or more quarters of the udder are 
usually healthy and in advanced stages of the disease hang like 
appendices upon the affected quarters. 

In the tubercular as well as diffuse form of mammary tubercu- 
losis, a pronounced specific change regularly occurs in the supra- 
mammary lymph glands, and this is especially well marked in diffuse 
mammary tuberculosis. Tuberculosis of the udder is distinguished 
from all other pathological conditions of this organ by the constant 
sympathetic affection of the supramammary lymph glands. 

Actinomycosis is of rare occurrence in the udder of cattle. 
Rasmussen observed four cases of actinomycosis in the udder of 
cows, either as firm, isolated tubercles or as diffuse, acute inflamma- 
tion. In two of these cases the disease terminated with calcification 
of the fungus before the process had become greatly extended. 
Other cases of mammary actinomycosis have been described by 
Phail and Maxwell. 

In the mammary region of the hog, on the other hand, actino- 
mycosis is a comparatively frequent process. This is probably 
due to the greater vulnerability of the integument over the mammary 
region of the hog. The organisms of actinomycosis, carried on 
straw, thus effect an entrance more easily. For example, in the 
slaughterhouses of Copenhagen Rasmussen found fifty-two cases of 
mammary actinomycosis in hogs inside of three months. Mammary 
actinomycosis in the hog is characterized either by the appearance 
of tumors or occurs more rarely in the form of a tumor than as cold 
abscesses (mixed infection with pyogenic bacteria). 

Among Parasites, echinococci have been demonstrated in the 
udder. 



318 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



4.— Respiratory Apparatus. 

(a) Nasal Cavity. 

It is only in the liorse that alterations in the nasal cavity 
occur, of such importance that an examination must be made in the 
case of each slaughtered animal after splitting open the head. In 
other domestic animals, inspection of the nasal cavity may be 
restricted to such cases as present phenomena during life which 
indicate disease of the nasal cavity. 

The mucous membrane of the nasal cavity of the horse may 
exhibit the following alterations : Petechise, serous, slimy, slimy- 
purulent and simple purulent catarrh ; croupous inflammations, the 
so-called follicular inflammation ; fibrous and sarcomatous neo- 
morphs, and, especially, glanderous processes. 



Fig. 76. 




: 

, ; 

/ ' '■-"•• . '-.•■ y l :lrr M'k ' 



ksk^ 



Nasal septum of horse with glanderous ulcers and cicatrix. 



Petechia of the nasal mucous membrane constitute an impor- 
tant symptom of petechial fever (morbus maculosus). Purulent 
inflammation is the chief symptom of contagious coryza. Both 
diseases are infectious and will be discussed under that head along 
with glanders. In this connection merely the macroscopical differ- 
ence between the mechanical lesions of the nasal mucous membrane 
and glanderous alterations may be noted. Mechanical lesions of 
the mucous membrane are always found in the entrance to the nasal 
cavity and heal either without cicatrization (in superficial injuries) 
or with a smooth cicatrix (in deeper injuries). In glanders, on the 
other hand, one observes tubercles, ulcers with a lardaceous 
floor, eruption of tubercles in the peripheral parts, and also stellate 
cicatrices (Fig. 76). Croupous rhinitis may arise through chemical 
irritation or through a specific infection. Croupous rhinitis due to 



RESPIRATORY APPARATUS 319 

chemical irritation has no significance for the inspection of horse 
meat on account of its benign course as a local affection. The same 
may be said of so-called follicular inflammation in which tubercles, 
vescicles and rapidly healing ulcers appear, and may spread from 
the nasal mucous membrane upon the general integument. More- 
over, catarrh of the nasal and communicating cavities has no special 
significance in meat inspection. 

In cattle the nasal cavities are to be closely inspected in case 
of symptoms of malignant catarrhal fever ; in sheep, in so-called 
ovine glanders (malignant catarrhal fever of sheep), and in affections 
caused by the larvae of oestrus ; and in hogs, in so-called snuffles. 

The last-named disease is characterized during life by a wheez- 
ing respiration. This is caused by a contraction of the nasal 
passages and may be due to various processes. The most frequent 
cause, however, is a rachitic swelling of the upper jaw, from which 
snuffles derived its name. In a large number of cases the author 
observed only rachitis of the upper jaw as the cause of snuffles. 

Judgment should be the same as for rachitis. 

Schneider reported a form of snuffles caused by the rudimentary 
development and curvature of the turbinated and ethmoid bones. 
This may lead to a bloody purulent nasal discharge with emaciation 
and even death by cachexia, or asphyxia. If such animals are 
emaciated, the meat is to be considered as unfit for food. Nothing 
is known concerning its possible harmfulness. Moreover, in cattle, 
tuberculosis and actinomycosis appear on the nasal mucous mem- 
branes ; and in dogs, Pentastomum taenioides in the nasal cavities and 
frontal sinuses. 

(b) Larynx and Trachea. 

The larynx and trachea are rarely the seat of independent dis- 
eases aside from catarrh. Attention should merely be called to the 
fact that croupous inflammation of these parts may be caused by 
chemical irritation (for example, pungent gases), or maybe observed 
as a symptom of malignant catarrhal fever and rinderpest. 

Glanderous, actinomycotic and tuberculous alterations show a 
predilection for the larynx. The laryngeal actinomycomata which 
frequently appear as primary affections in cattle are located on the 
mucous membrane and are either pedunculate or with a broad base 
(Fig. 77). In the trachea of cattle tuberculous alterations occur on 
the mucous membrane and also in the submucosa of the posterior 
wall. 



320 



NOTEWOETHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



The statement concerning the trachea applies also to the larger 
bronchial tubes. As pathological curiosities, mention should be 
made of bronchiectases and peribronchitic processes which arise in 
connection with inflammation of the mucous membrane. 

In the trachea of fowls, Syngamus trachealis is found as a para- 
site. Eaillet described another species of Syngamus, S. laryngeus, 
as occurring frequently in the larynx and in the upper portions of 
the trachea of cattle in Anam (farther India.). 

Fig. 77. 




Bovine larynx with an actinomyeoina on the epiglottis. 

(c) Lungs. 

Atelectasis. — Atelectasis is frequently observed in the lungs of 
food animals. As a rule, it is a congenital peculiarity and confined 
to small pulmonary areas. The parts of the lung thus affected are 
brownish-red, firm, and do not contain air. The bronchial tubes 
leading to the affected parts are, as a rule, in a catarrhal condition 
in older animals. 



Dissolution of Continuity. — In addition to gross dissolutions of 
continuity in the lungs (from stabs, shot wounds, broken ribs, etc.), 
a less extensive form should be mentioned ; namely, interlobular 
emphysema. This arises by rupture of the alveoli. As a conse- 
quence of this rupture, air appears between the alveoli in vesicles 
varying in size from a millet seed to a pea. The air vesicles under 
the pleura are most sharply distinguished from the pulmonary 



RESPIEATORY APPARATUS 321 

tissue. In animals which exhibited acute dyspnea during life and 
were, therefore, slaughtered, there may be accumulations of air in 
large cavities which are partly filled with blood. Furthermore, in 
violent respiration the air may be forced into the mediastinal spaces 
and thence under the parietal pleura as well as into the connective 
tissue surrounding the trachea and, finally, from these locations even 
under the general integument. 

Deposits op Pigment and Lime. — Partial or complete melanosis 
of the lungs frequently occurs in calves. Calcareous deposits, on the 
other hand, are exceedingly rare. In one such case observed by the 
author, the lung had only partly collapsed. Numerous hard struc- 
tures of irregular, angular form could be felt. They could not be 
removed from the lungs except with the attached pulmonary tissue. 
After dissolving the lime salts by means of acetic acid, the pul- 
monary tissue appeared merely as an organic basis for the calcareous 
deposits. This true calcification of the lungs is essentially distinct 
from, zooparasite and phytoparasitic calcifications, which are; 
observed in the lungs in a variety of forms. 

Disturbances of the Circulation. — Among the circulatory 
derangements which occur in the lungs, especial interest centers in 
hypostasis as a means of recognizing natural death and slaughter 
performed during the crisis of the disease. The pulmonary 
hypostasis which develops on the lowest portion of that side of the 
body upon which the animal lay while dying is not to be confused 
with so-called blood aspiration (see p. 331). 

A brown induration may appear in the lungs in consequence of 
a persistent increase in blood pressure in the right ventricle. This 
is not infrequently observed in hogs (perhaps in connection with 
the frequency of endocarditis in swine erysipelas, as shown by Bang). 
The indurated lungs do not collapse ; they are brownish-red instead 
of rose-red and feel firm. Judgment should be the same as in pro^ 
liferating inflammations. 

Since the lungs are provided with terminal arteries, hemorrhagic^ 
infarcts may occur in them as in the kidneys. In the lungs, however, 
there is the possibility of the occurrence of extensive infarcts. The 
fate of pulmonary infarcts is not generally the same as that of renal 
infarcts. In the lungs, only infected infarcts with a tendency 
toward softening are of importance. 

Pulmonary edema is characterized by the appearance of a 
frothy fluid in the alveoli, bronchioles, and bronchi. This condition. 



322 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

lias no special pathognomonic significance, since it is a common 
phenomenon accompanying the decreasing cardiac powers immedi- 
ately preceding death. The animals do not die because they are 
affected with pulmonary edema, but pulmonary edema arises 
because the animals are approaching death (Cohnheim). 

Hemorrhages. — Pulmonary hemorrhages may be associated 
■with lacerations of the pulmonary tissue, or by diabrosis as a conse- 
quence of pulmonary cavities. In the horse, wandering larvae of 
Strongylus armatus have occasionally given rise to pulmonary hem- 
orrhages. 

Subpleural hemorrhages are observed under the same patho- 
logical conditions as retro-peritoneal hemorrhages (see under 
" Intoxications and Affections "). 

Inflammations. — Thickening of the pulmonary tissue in conse- 
quence of the filling of the alveoli with an exudation, so-called 
hepatization, is the anatomical criterion of pulmonary inflammation 
(pneumonia). 

The etiology of the different forms of pneumonia which occur 
in food animals is a varying one. Pulmonary inflammations arise 
from a spreading of inflammatory processes of the mucous mem- 
brane of the bronchial ramifications to the pulmonary tissue 
(broncho-pneumonia), or in consequence of certain toxic substances 
circulating in the blood (hematogenous pneumonia). Traumatic 
pneumonia, which is caused by foreign bodies, for example, pene- 
trating from the reticulum in cattle, plays only an unimportant 
role. Hematogenous pulmonary inflammations are, without excep- 
tion, of bacterial nature. Broncho-pneumonia may be caused by 
mechanical irritation (inhalation of dust, parasites) and thermic and 
chemical inflammation (inflammation of smoke and irritating gases). 
Pathological micro-organisms (bacteria and mold fungi) constitute 
the chief causes of broncho-pneumonia. Aside from the forms of 
broncho-pneumonia caused by bacteria and mold fungi, verminous 
pneumonia alone possesses great importance. Finally, with regard 
to etiology, mention should be made of the organisms of infectious 
granulations (tubercle bacilli, glanders bacilli, actinomyces and 
botryomyces), which may obtain entrance into the lungs by inhala- 
tion or from a primary focus already existing in the body and may 
give rise there to their specific granulations accompanied by inflam- 
matory phenomena. 

Judgment on pulmonary inflammations from a sanitary stand- 



RESPIRATORY APPARATUS 823 

point will vary (1) according to etiology ; (2) according to the degree 
of inflammation. 

"With regard to pulmonary inflammations it may be said in 
general that, if we disregard the forms of inflammation caused by 
the organisms of infectious granulations (tuberculous, glanderous, 
actinomycotic, and botryomycotic), they do not render the meat 
harmful according to our present state of knowledge. This may be 
considered as demonstrated for pleuro-pneumonia of cattle as well as 
for the other typical pulmonary inflammations of domestic animals by 
the fact that the meat of these animals has been eaten in innumer- 
able cases without any ill effects. This fact has led to the passage 
of laws (Imperial Animal Plague Law) permitting the general con- 
sumption of the meat of animals affected with pneumonia. With 
regard to a number of other frequently occurring pulmonary 
inflammations which, from a bacteriological study, are known to be 
infectious diseases, as, for example, swine plague, it is commonly 
believed that the meat of affected animals may have an injurious 
effect. This belief, however, finds no support in veterinary experi- 
ence. Swine plague was formerly regarded as a simple cold and 
this assumption brought it about that the meat of animals affected 
with this disease was sold in the market without any restriction. 
An extensive feeding experiment with the meat of animals affected 
with swine plague was thus instituted and no injurious effects were 
observed. In the literature of the subject, no unexceptionable case 
can be found of meat poisoning from eating the meat of animals 
which were affected with pulmonary inflammation. Infectious pul- 
monary inflammations behave in this regard exactly as other acute 
infectious diseases of domestic animals, such as rinderpest, black 
leg, and erysipelas of hogs, which are well known not to be trans- 
missible to man. 

The meat in cases of pneumonia may, however, become dangerous 
to health when, following upon pulmonary inflammations, processes 
develop which have tho power of "poisoning" the blood (pyemia 
and septicemia). Pyemia may be associated with primary purulent 
pulmonary inflammations, as, for example, traumatic pneumonia, or 
with suppuration of specific pneumonic areas (complication of pneu- 
monia of cattle and horses, and swine plague). Septicemia occurs, 
on the other hand, when septic organisms have opportunity to 
become located in the inflamed pulmonary tissue in association with 
the organism which caused the original inflammation. This appears 
to be possible only in cases of necrosing inflammations. Septicemia 
following pulmonary inflammations is rare. In hogs, at any rate, 



394 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

pyemia is more frequently associated with the specific pneumonia of" 
this animal (swine plague, compare " Septicemia " and " Pyemia"). 

The greater number of pulmonary inflammations will be 
discussed under " Infectious Diseases," since, as already indicated, 
they are merely the chief symptom of specific infections (pneumonia 
of horses and cattle ; infectious pneumonia of calves, sheep and 
goats ; hemorrhagic septicemia of cattle ; and swine plague). More- 
over, under the head of " Infectious Diseases," glanderous and 
tuberculous pneumonia will also be considered. 

In this connection we shall discuss merely those pulmonary 
inflammations which do not owe their origin to specific bacteria. 
To this group belong broncho-pneumonia in consequence of the 
aspiration of foreign material, verminous pneumonia, n^coses, and 
traumatic inflammations of the lungs, which may arise in cattle 
from the penetration by foreign bodies from one of the anterior 
stomachs. 

Aspiration Pneumonia. — In a broad sense, pneumonia of aspira- 
tion should include all forms of broncho-pneumonia which arise 
from inhalation of foreign material as well as those which are caused 
by inhaled microorganisms. In a stricter sense, pneumonia of" 
aspiration includes only those inflammations which are caused by 
larger corporeal particles. The prototype of these forms is repre- 
sented by so-called pneumonia due to foreign bodies or to the 
passage of fluids down the trachea. The latter terminates, as a rule, 
in gangrene of the lungs, and in the horse, in which animal it is most 
frequently observed, in death from putrid intoxication (see this 
subject). While aseptic foreign bodies or such as are not contam- 
inated with pathogenic organisms become included in the lung 
tissue in the healing processes, the pathogenic organisms which are 
carried into the lungs in fluids through the trachea cause primary 
necrosis and thereby offer an opportunity for the secondary localiza- 
tion and development of putrefactive bacteria. According to 
observations made on slaughtered animals, the form of pneumonia 
due to the entrance of fluid through the trachea runs a more favor- 
able course in cattle and hogs and more frequently heals by 
encapsulation than in the horse. 

For judgment, see under " Sapremia " and " Septicemia." 

Verminous Pneumonia. — Lung worms, as a rule, are found in the 
small bronchial tubes, in which they cause no serious alterations, 
except catarrh. In case of an extensive invasion, however, the. 






RESPIRATORY APPARATUS 



325 



parasites may cause an inflammation of the lungs. This is most fre- 
quently the case in infestations of sheep by Strongylus filaria and 
of young cattle and deer by S. micrurus. Moreover, in sheep, there 
is another special form of verminous pneumonia, the so-called pul- 
monary hair worm disease, due to S. capillaris (Fig. 78). 

The pulmonary inflammations due to Strongylidse exhibit all 
the symptoms of acute broncho-pneumonia. At first there is a 
marked bronchitis. Associated with this, and in consequence of the 
lesions produced by the wandering embryos, is an inflammation of 
the pulmonary tissue in the 

iorm of lobular areas. The FlG - ? 8 - 

pneumonic areas may degen- 
erate in case death does not 
occur from asphyxia or cach- 
exia. In pulmonary hair 
worm disease, there are also 
lobular inflammations which, 
however, as a rule, run a be- 
nign course and leave only 
an inconsiderable residue in 
the form of small tubercular 
neomorphs or larger areas of 
infiltration in the pulmonary 
tissue. 

Judgment on verminous 
pneumonia, in so far as the 
meat is concerned, will de- 
pend entirely on whether the 
inflammatory processess . in Verminous pneumonia due to Strongylus capil- 

the lungs have seriously dis- la / is ^ ft lT " A - , MMler )- . a > embryos; J> P^ts 
to J . _ of sexually mature specimens. The whole tis- 

turbed the general condition sue is filled with embryos. As a result of des- 

t ! ,i ; i- -i quamative pneumonia, the alveoli contain no 

and whether emaciation has ^ r * ' 

begun at the time of slaugh- 
ter. In the latter case the meat is to be considered unfit for food ; 
while it is to be excluded from the market as highly unfit for food 
when, in consequence of pneumonia, hydremic cachexia has de- 
veloped with serous exudation in the body cavity. 

Mycosis of the Lungs Due to Mold Fungi,— It must be considered 
as demonstrated by numerous observations and by the experiments 
of Schutz and List, that mold fungi may produce pulmonary diseases 
in animals. This is most frequently the case in birds ; occasionally 




326 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



also, no doubt, cases of pneumo-mycosis are observed in mammals. 
Bockl, Martin, Lucet and Bournay described cases in horses and 
cattle ; and Mazzanti a case in sheep. 

These cases are commonly due to infection by pathogenic 
species of aspergillus, A.fumigaius and A. niger. 

Aspergillosis of the lungs may be confused with tuberculosis, 
since it is ushered in with the formation of tubercles. However, 
protection against such an error is afforded by an examination of 
the bronchial glands (they are intact in infection by mold fungi), 
and by a microscopic study. According to Rockl, a closely-matted 



Fig. 79. 




_ r 

■-■ ■ .■■■- 








Pneumonomycosis of cattle (after Roekl). 
A, center of a pulmonary tubercle with fungous myceiia; B, isolated hyphas. 

mycelium is observed in the tubercles, caused by aspergillus. On 
the borders of the tubercles, however, relatively short hyphse are 
observed lying closely together like sheaves radially arranged. A 
very characteristic structure, not unlike an aster, is thus produced 
(Fig. 79). Aspergillosis may also be readily distinguished from 
pleuro-pneumonia, to which it has a great similarity, by microscopic 
investigation. 

In the case described by Rockl, the lungs were in part infested 
with tubercles of the size of hemp seed and in part exhibited the 
symptoms of extensive hepatization. The hepatized areas were 



RESPIRATORY APPARATUS 327 

conspicuous for their marbled appearance. Furthermore, ulcers 
were found on the bronchial mucous membrane and stratified 
thrombi in the region of the hepatized portion. 

The cases observed by Lucet ran a course with symptoms of 
septicemia, with hemorrhagic pneumonia, and ecchymoses in all 
organs. In the case described by Bournay, tubercles of the size of 
nuts were found with central cavities which were infected with 
fungi. Finally, in Mazzanti's case, the lungs were permeated with 
softened tubercles surrounded with red areas varying in size from 
that of poppy seed to that of hemp seed. The tubercles contained 
mycelia and spores. 

Diffuse hepatization is observed in birds ; and in the hepatized 
areas, which at first are colored red, are small gray, poorly defined 
specks. In microscopical preparations it is observed that not only 
the bronchioles, alveolar branches, and alveoli are filled with a sep- 
tate and much-branched fungus mycelium, but that the interlobular 
tissue is also attacked by the indiscriminate proliferation of the 
fungus. 

Judgment. — Aspergillosis appears not to be capable of trans- 
mission to man by way of the alimentary tract. The mycotic organs, 
however, are to be excluded from sale as highly unfit for food, while 
no restriction should be placed on the meat, since aspergillosis of 
the lungs is a purely local disease. 

Traumatic Inflammations of the Lungs are of frequent occurrence 
in cattle. They are purulent inflammations which develop in the 
immediate vicinity of foreign bodies. Later the foreign bodies, as 
a rule, become encapsulated in tough connective tissue which lies 
about the foreign bodies in the form of a tube. These processes 
are especially noteworthy since an infiltration of the interlobular 
connective tissue, similar to that in pleuro-pneumonia, may develop 
in the first stages of traumatic pneumonia, beyond the purulent 
zone which surrounds the foreign bodies. 

Tumors and Infectious Granulations. — Among the tumors 
which are observed in the lungs, mention should be made of 
adenoma, chondroma and metastatic sarcoma. Of the infectious 
granulations, we should mention the neomorphs of glanders 
(tubercles and lobular infiltration), tuberculosis (primary tubercu- 
lous broncho-pneumonia and embolic pulmonary tuberculosis), 
botryomycosis and actinomycosis. Pulmonary actinomycosis is 
not rare. As a rule, it develops secondarily in consequence of 



328 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

aspiration of portions of disintegrated pharyngeal or laryngeal 
actinomycomata. In this case tubercles are found in the lungs 
varying in size from lentils to peas and sometimes of the size of a 
man's head. Moreover, actinomycotic cavities and tubercular 
actinomycomata are found on the mucous membrane of the bronchi. 
By transportation in the blood circulation, embolic pulmonary 
actinomycosis may arise in the form of disseminated tubercles lying 
in the interstitial pulmonary tissue. Pflug observed a case of this 
sort which was apparently without primary alterations in any other 
organ. Occasionally, pearl-like actinomycomata are also found on 
the pulmonary pleura (Basmussen). 

Parasites. — The lungs of domesticated animals and wild game 
are parasitized more or less frequently by (1) different species of 
lung worms {Strongylus micrurus) in cattle, roebuck and fallow deer ; 
S.filaria in sheep and goats ; S. 'paradoxus in hogs ; S. commutatus in 
hare and rabbits, also in sheep and goats ; S. capillaris in sheep 
and goats ; (2) echinococci in the form of vesicles varying in size 
from a pea to the fist ; (3) wandering liver flukes (Distomum hepati- 
cum) in cysts of the size of a hazel nut and larger, with tough, partly 
chondrified walls, and brown, oleaceous contents. The liver flukes 
which are found in the lungs are, as a rule, degenerated. 

In addition to these frequently occurring parasites we occasion- 
ally observe in the lungs the larvae of Pentastomum, Cysticercus 
tenuicollis, C. bovis and G. cellulosae ; the latter, however, as a rule, 
only when large numbers of the parasites are present in the muscu- 
lature. 

Non-glanderous pulmonary tubercles ('.'gray transparent," "cal- 
careous fibrous," pulmonary tubercles). — In the lungs of horses 
tubercles are frequently found of an undoubted embolic character, 
which have given rise to confusion with pulmonary glanders. These 
tubercles in their early stages possess a striking resemblance to 
frog eggs (Csokor). Later they show a firm wall of connective 
tissue and a casefied or calcified content. The size of the tubercles 
varies. Some are barely visible to the naked eye and from this size 
transition sizes are observed up to that of a pea. As a rule, how- 
ever, the tubercles which are found in any one lung, and which may 
be very numerous, are of the same size. 

The tubercles in question are distinguished macroscopically 
from glanderous tubercles by the absence of a red zone, by their 
tendency to calcify, and furthermore by the homogeneous character 
of the tubercles, the absence of small tubercles associated with. 



RESPIRATORY APPARATUS 



329 



large ones, the absence of other glanderous alterations, and by the 
integrity of the bronchial glands. It should be noted, however, that 
the tubercles in question may appear in the lymph glands. 

The etiology of these non-glanderous pulmonary tubercles 
appears to be a variable one. In one case Martin succeeded in 
demonstrating fungous mycelia in the tubercles. Willach claims to 
have observed distomes in the pathological foci. It was demon- 
strated by the systematic investigation of Olt, Grips, Schiitz aud 
Kunnemann, that the gray transparent and later caleareous fibrous 
pulmonary tubercles represent emboli or miliary chronic pneu- 
monias which are produced by animal parasites, usually the larvse 
of nematodes. 

Fig. 80. 

? e 




Entozoic pulmonary tubercles of a pneumonic form in the horse, (after Olt). 

a, inflamed alveoli; b, part of a nematode larva; c, connective tissue capsule of the 

parasitic focus, X 30 diameters. 

The parts of the worms are magnified 80 diameters. 



Olt found at the abattoir in Stettin that the non-glanderous 
pulmonary tubercles which were very frequent in that locality were 
caused by embolic invasion of echinococci which became prema- 
turely disintegrated in the lumen of the blood vessels. In Pomerania, 
a region in which the echinococcus disease is very prevalent in man 
and domestic animals, seventy per cent, of the slaughtered horses, 
according to Olt, were infested with the tubercles in question. In 
further investigations, Olt demonstrated that the tubercles usually 
contain nematodes (probably the larvse of Strongylus armatus). 
Concerning the seat of these entozoic tubercles, Olt maintains that 
they lie under the sera or in the pulmonary parenchyma, but never 



330 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

upon the surface of the respiratory mucous membrane. The color 
of the tubercles is commonly gray or light-gray. Occasionally they 
are furnished with a pure white or light-yellow capsule. The most 
recently formed tubercles possess a reddish zone. The older ones 
are sharply delimited from the neighboring tissues. The consistency 
varies according to age. Tubercles of more recent origin constitute 
a thickened mass iuside the otherwise normal pulmonary tissue. 
Later the tubercles become uniformly tough and finally present 
stony, calcareous kernels inside of a stratified fibrous capsule which 
is sharply marked off from the surrounding tissue. Parasitic 
tubercles which develop in the meantime in the lymph glands are 
distinguished by the fact that they are likewise surrounded by nor- 
mal glandular tissue and never cause acute lymphadenitis, indura- 
tions, or ulcerative processes. 

Schutz repeatedly inoculated the tubercles in question into 
rabbits and horses without producing glanderous infection in any 
case. Kiinnemann and Troster obtained the same negative results 
in inoculation experiments with guinea pigs and cats. Moreover, 
Schutz made a microscopic examination of the gray transparent 
tubercles and pure cultures without finding any glanders bacilli. 
On the other hand, Kiinnemann, in accord with Olt, found that 
nematodes are occasionally present in the tubercles. 

For the microscopic differential diagnosis of entozoic and 
glanderous tubercles in the lungs of horses, see under " Glanders." 

Finally, attention should be called to other alterations which 
are caused by certain processes during the act of slaughter or dur- 
ing the death struggle ; viz., aspirations of stomach contents and 
so-called blood aspiration. 

Aspiration op the Stomach Contents. — During the act of 
slaughter, the contents of the stomach may pass into the pharynx 
and thence by violent inspiration may be drawn into the trachea 
and bronchi. 

Aspiration of tke stomach contents is most frequently observed 
in the lungs of cattle. This fact depends upon the peculiar position 
and character of the esophagus, in consequence of which the stom- 
ach contents of recumbent animals must from mechanical reasons 
pass into the esophagus. The regurgitation of the stomach contents 
into the esophagus is increased by trampling upon the abdomen, as 
is practiced by butchers in accelerating the flow of blood. 

In slaughtering by the Jewish method, the stomach contents 
flow directly from the esophagus into the trachea, since both organs 



RESPIRATORY APPARATUS 331 

are severed simultaneously. A portion of the stomach contents is 
therefore almost always found mixed with blood in the lungs of 
animals slaughtered in this manner. This result is brought about 
partly by the fact that after the throat is cut the inspirations per- 
sist for some time with undiminished force. The material which 
flows into the trachea is violently drawn into the ramifications of 
the trachea and may be so firmly wedged in the bronchial tubes that 
it can not be driven out again by expiration. The aspirated stom- 
ach contents may thus lead to agonal emphysema, in consequence 
of the obstruction of the air passages. 

Recognition. — Aspiration of the stomach contents may be easily 
recognized by making a cross section of the lungs below the bifur- 
cation of the trachea. 

Judgment. — Lungs containing aspirated stomach contents are 
highly unfit for food and are to be excluded from sale if the abnor- 
mal contents are not confined simply to the trachea and larger 
bronchial tubes, so that the foreign material may be entirely 
removed by cutting open these tubes. 

On account of the frequency of the occurrence of aspirated 
stomach contents in bovine bronchi, meat dealers, by means of 
knobbed scissors, commonly open and clean these structures in the 
preparation of the lungs. 

Aspiration of Blood. — So-called blood aspiration in the lungs 
occurs during slaughter in cases where the trachea and the blood 
vessels of the neck are severed. The blood may thus be drawn into 
the finest bronchial ramifications as long as the animal continues to 
breathe. 

Blood aspiration is observed most frequently in cattle and hogs 
killed by the Jewish method. To be sure, the latter animals are 
stunned before sticking and inspiration during bleeding is therefore 
less frequent. Nevertheless, as shown by W. Eber, a phenomenon 
analogous to blood aspiration is frequently observed in hogs, but 
this depends on the peculiar method of bleeding hogs. The blood 
of hogs is a valuable material ; so valuable, indeed, that the blood 
of cattle is falsely substituted and sold as hog blood. The blood 
of hogs, therefore, is carefully collected and the butcher closes the 
wound in the skin in order to prevent the loss of the blood when 
the vessel utilized for receiving it becomes fall. By thus pressing 
the lips of the wound together the blood which flows from the sev- 
ered cervical vessels is forced toward the point of least resistance — 
being in this case the partly severed trachea — and may thus pass 



332 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

into the trachea and bronchi merely from gravity and without assist- 
ance from respiratory movements. The blood does not flow out 
again from the trachea, since the inter-annular bands are injured in 
cutting in such a manner that they open only inward, like valves. 

Recognition. — The aspiration of blood in cattle and the analo- 
gous phenomenon in hogs are characterized by the appearance of 
red-colored lobuli scattered everywhere throughout the pulmonary 
tissue ; but, as a rule, in such a manner that they are separated 
from one another by portions of the lung of a normal color. In 
this way blood aspiration is distinguished from hypostasis. Blood 
aspiration is easily distinguished from lobular pneumonia by the 
fact that in the former the red-colored lobuli do not project beyond 
the surface of the lung, and feel, not like hepatized areas, but almost 
like normal pulmonary tissue ; and, finally, by the fact that upon 
section the bronchi and bronchioles appear to be filled with coagu- 
lated or non-coagulated blood, while the pulmonary tissue itself is 
still filled with air (presence of foam in stroking the cut surface). 
W. Eber found that in blood aspiration the blood in the lungs 
undergoes partial resorption. In aspiration of blood, a red colora- 
tion of the cortical zones of the bronchial glands is frequently 
observed and is due to the accumulation of resorbed red blood 
corpuscles. 

Judgment. — In moderate aspiration of blood, the lungs are not to 
be condemned, while in excessive aspiration they are to be consid- 
ered as unfit for food, particularly because they decompose more 
rapidly than normal lungs. 

For the recognition of artificially inflated lungs, see Chap- 
ter XV. 

(d) Pleura. 

The pleura exhibits only a few independent alterations. The- 
majority of these alterations depend upon abnormal conditions and 
processes in the lungs. This is especially true of inflammation of 
the pleura. 

Inflammations. — Only three forms of primary pleuritis are 
observed in food animals. One form is caused by foreign bodies 
which penetrate the thoracic cavity from the stomach ; a second 
form of primary pleuritis develops in consequence of fracture of 
the ribs. The third form is of infectious origin and occurs only in 
hogs ; it has a chronic character and is ushered in with multiple 
formation of abscesses (see " Infectious Pleuro-peritonitis of Hogs "). 



RESPIRATORY APPARATUS 333 

AH other pleural inflammations develop secondarily in association 
with pneumonia. 

Primary inflammations of the pleura of food animals are, in, 
general, benign affections. They usually do not cause death or 
forced slaughter and are thereby essentially different from similar 
peritoneal inflammations. Traumatic inflammation of the pleura as 
well as that caused by fracture of the ribs without complication 
heals in the majority of cases by proliferation of connective tissue 
at the point of irritation after the formation of the fibrinous or sero- 
fibrinous exudation. In slaughtering animals we often unexpectedly 
find evidences of such inflammation in connective tissue capsules 
and adhesions extending from the folds of the pleura. Even the , 
specific alterations of infectious pleuritis of hogs are, as a rule, dis- 
covered unexpectedly in animals which showed no symptoms of the 
disease during life. 

The secondary inflammations of the pleura in pneumonia of 
horses and cattle, hemorrhagic septicemia of cattle, and swine 
plague, run exactly the same course as that of primary pneumoniae. 
It is only in case of necrosis of superficial portions of the lungs that 
putrefactive and septic bacteria from the outside world may gain 
entrance to the pleuritic exudation and thereby cause the complica- 
tion of sapremia and septicemia. In the majority of cases the 
pleuritic process heals simultaneously with the pneumonia and 
leaves only such connective tissue adhesions as, for example, are so 
frequently observed in hogs after recovery from swine plague. In 
consequence of the connective tissue adhesions, pulmonary abscesses 
which extend to the surface may be prevented from opening into 
the pleural cavity and may be rendered harmless to the organism 
after complete encapsulation. 

The anatomical forms of pleuritis are the same as those of peri- 
tonitis. Judgment on them should be governed, therefore, by the 
same rules as judgment of peritonitis. 

Beside inflammations, the following alterations of the pleura 
deserve consideration : 

Hypostasis. — In natural death and in slaughtering during the 
crisis of disease, hypostatic congestion appears on the low-lying 
parts of the pleura in the same manner as in the lungs. The red. 
coloration of the pleura, however, which may appear when the blood 
passes into the pleural sac during bleeding, must be distinguished 
from hypostasis. In the former we find small and large blood clots, 
on the pleura and a diffuse red coloration of this structure. 



334 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



Tumors. — In addition to sarcomata, false neuromata 01 the 
intercostal nerves (myxo-fibromata) may occur quite frequently 
under the pleura of cattle. These neomorphic structures occupy a 
position corresponding to the course of the intercostal nerves in the 
intercostal spaces underneath the pleura. They are conspicuous, 
therefore, when they occur in large numbers, for their regular 
arrangement. 

False neuromata of the intercostal nerves in their early stages 
may be confused with tuberculosis and in their later stages with 
echmococci. At first they form gray, firm tubercles varying in size 
from a hemp seed to a pea and surrounding the nerve like a ring 
(Fig. 81). In the large tubercles — they sometimes reach the size of 



Fig. 81. 




False neuroma of the intercostal nerves in cattle. 



a potato— the myxomatous tissue is more conspicuous. In this 
manner structures arise which, to the naked eye, possess great 
resemblance to echinococci. Section, however, immediately demon- 
strates to the inspector the true nature of the alteration, for only 
a slight quantity of slime-like tissue and no fluid oozes from 
the spherical or elongated structures. Myxo-fibroma of the 
intercostal nerves is distinguished by the complete absence of 
caseation. 

False neuromata of the intercostal nerves are but rarely 
observed in slaughtered cattle. Moreover, they exercise no influ- 
ence over the character of the meat. It is necessary merely to 
remove them and this may be done in connection with the nerve 
strands. 



RESPIRATORY APPAEATUS 335 

Infectious Granulations. — In cattle, tuberculosis of the pleura 
is of unusually frequent occurrence. In hogs it is very rare. Pleural 
tuberculosis of cattle begins with proliferation of small red connec- 
tive tissue papillae and filaments which give the pleura a velvety 
appearance. Later, casefying and calcifying tubercles are observed 
in the larger connective tissue proliferations (Fig. 82). Pleural 
tuberculosis is also characterized in the advanced stages by the 
strongly developed "connective tissue framework of the tubercle. 
Tuberculous neomorphs on the pleura may reach a considerable 
thickness (up to 20 cm. and over), and this without the subjacent 
parts, ribs, and intercostal muscles showing even the slightest trace 
of disease per continuitatem. This is of the greatest importance in 
rendering judgment on serous tuberculosis with reference to the 
neighboring musculature. Attention should again be called to the 
fact that the corresponding lymph glands 
of the pleura are the retro-pleural, thoracic • 82- 

and mediastinal, and not, as has been ^^^-SMI 1 ' 



erroneously assumed, the lymph glands of ff; 

the anterior extremity, axiliary and pre- ^^^6 

scapular glands. -'"" 



the anterior extremity, axiliary and pre- 

)ular glands. 

We should not confuse incipient jSlL 

pleural tuberculosis with proliferating in- 
flammations of the pleura which- develop i 
from friction from echinococci, and which 
extend to the pleura. 

Besides tuberculosis, actinomycosis „ , , , . . 

.. „ ,.. , d „ berous tuberculosis of cattle 

may exceptionally occur on the pleura of (pearl disease). 

cattle. The infection arises either from 

the lung or, in pleura phrenica, from the liver. In the latter case 
actinomycotic tissue penetrates the diaphragm. When all other 
characters are disregarded, actinomycotic tubercles are distin- 
guished by the soft, myxoma-like oozing surface on section, showing 
numerous yellow granules, as well as by the strongly developed 
neomorphs of connective tissue in the neighborhood of all other 
similar alterations. 

In chickens and pheasants, the air sac mite (Cytodites nudus) 
is frequently found in the air sacs of the thorax, neck and abdomen. 
The mites are visible to the naked eye as yellowish or brownish 
points. They may cause inflammatory alterations of the membranes 
of the air sacs in the form of yellow gelatinous effusions or mem- 
branous deposits (Kitt). In cases of extensive invasion of the lungs 
and trachea, death may result from inflammation of these air pas- 



336 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



sages and from asphyxiation (Gerlacli, Zschokke, Megnin). Holzen- 
dorff also found the mites in miliary abscesses of the liver, lungs 
and kidneys of chickens. 

Parasites are only occasionally found in the sub-pleural tissue. 
In one instance the author found under the pleura of a hog an 
Echinococcus multilocularis which presented the appearance of 

Fig. 83. 




a, Echinococcus under the costal pleura in a hog. 

tuberculosis (Fig. 83). A similar case was recently observed by 
Benedictis in cattle. The dangerous cysticercus of cattle and hogs 
has a special predilection for the intercostal muscles which are 
covered by the pleura. 



5.— Circulatory Apparatus. 
(a) Heart. 

In the heart the following parts require special discussion : The 
epicardum with the pericardum ; the inner lining of the heart (endo- 
cardium) ; the cardiac muscle (myocardium). 

Enicardium and Pericardium. 

Hemorrhages. — The epicardium is frequently the seat of 
petechia which appear as sympathetic symptoms of toxic, infectious, 
general diseases under the serous membranes. For example, in 
anthrax, Texas fever, and fowl cholera, the epicardium shows black 



CIRCULATORY APPARATUS u6 { 

spots or petechias in an almost pathognomonic manner. Large 
quantities of blood are found in the pericardial cavity in rupture of 
the heart, or of the coronary arter}-. 

Inflammations of the pericardium arise primarily from wounds. 
Furthermore, they may develop secondarily under the same condi- 
tions which cause secondary pleuritis. In the latter case, the 
inflammation of the pericardium represents merely a complication 
of primary pulmonary inflammations. Traumatic rjericarditis is a 
typical disease of cattle. It will be discussed in greater detail 
under " Sapremia." It should be noted that occasionally in hogs a 
serous or sero-fibrinous pericarditis is observed as the Only phe- 
nomenon of swine plague. More frequently, however, a simultane- 
ous inflammation of the pleura and lungs is observed. 

Connective tissue proliferations of the epicardium and of the 
inner layer of the pericardium, sometimes leading to adhesions of 
these parts, are observed after recovery from acute pericarditis. 
This condition is most frequently observed in hogs after swine 
plague and in cattle after recovery from traumatic pericarditis. 

Connective tissue adhesions between the epicardium and the 
inner layer of the pericardium interfere with a careful inspection of 
the surface of the heart, especially for cysticerci. In inspecting the 
heart, it is therefore desirable to remove the pathologically altered 
epicardium with a knife. 

Tumors. — Tumors may project into the pericardial cavity either 
from the pericardium or from the epicardium. According to Kitt, 
fibromata and fibro-sarcomata occur most frequently. 

Infectious Granulations. — Among the specific neomorphic 
formations, tuberculosis of the pericardium is of frequent occurrence; 
in cattle. The pericardium as well as the pleura and peritoneum: 
may apparently be affected with primary tuberculosis. Ordinarily,, 
however, tuberculosis of the pericardium is associated with pul- 
monary and pleural tuberculosis. 

When the epicardium is affected, it is a striking fact which is 
sufficiently explained by the centripetal course of the lymphatic 
vessels that even the most serious cases of epicardial tuberculosis 
begin with complete integrity of the myocardium. 

Endocardium. 

The inner lining of the heart may exhibit petechias under the 
already frequently noted conditions, and also insignificant cloudiness. 



'S3S 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



in consequence of partial fatty metamorphosis or proliferating inflam- 
mation. 

According to Glage, cysts varying in size from a pea to a bean 
and resembling cysticerci occur quite frequently on the auriculo- 
ventricular valves in hogs. Gibson also observed similar cysts in 
sheep. 

For the differential diagnosis of endocardial petechia, attention 
should again be called in this connection to the systolic hyperemic 
conditions of the myocardium and to the valvular hemorrhages in 
fasting calves (compare page 174). 



Inflammations. — Inflammations of the duplicatures of the endo- 
cardium or the so-called car- 
Fig. 84. cli ac valves are not without 

importance for meat inspec- 
tion. Two forms are distin- 
guished: Verrucose and ulcer- 
ous valvular endocarditis. 
Verrucose valvular endocar- 
ditis may reach such a con- 
dition that the death of the 
animal is brought about by 
mechanical obstruction of the 
circulation. Furthermore, 
thrombi may be formed upon 
the greatly thickened cardiac 
valve so as to exercise the 
same influence upon them as 
strong connective tissue pro- 
liferations upon the valvular 
apparatus. With regard to 
the etiology of the verrucose 
form of valvular inflamma- 
tion, it may represent a 
simple proliferating inflammation or an infectious process. Cocci 
and bacilli have been found in the proliferating valves. A special 
and frequent form of infectious verrucose valvular endocarditis is 
caused by the bacillus of swine erysipelas (Fig. 84). 

Ulcerous or diphtheritic valvular endocarditis begins with a 
desquamation of the superficial layers of the cardiac valves. Later 
the desquamating areas are modified into ulcers. Large thrombi 
arise in the ulcerous spots (Fig. 85). The loosening of the thrombi 




Heart of a hog with valvular verrucose endo 
carditis as a sequela of swine erysipelas. 
a, warty thickenings. 



CIRCULATORY APPARATUS 



339 



may give rise to hemorrhagic infarcts in the liver, lungs, spleen and 
kidneys. 

Ulcerous inflammation of the cardiac valves is either of toxic or 
infectious origin. In the latter case pyogenic organisms are of special 
importance. For this reason ulcerous valvular endocarditis may 
serve as a starting point in pyemic processes (see under " Pyemia "). 

Fig. 85. 




Beef heart with valvular ulcerous endocarditis, a, cut surface of the thrombus on 
the ulcerous cardiac valve; b, base of the thrombus after artificial separation 
from the substratum ■ c, ulcerous part of the cardiac valve. 



Tumors. — Tumors of the character of fibromata and fibro- 
sarcomata may arise upon the endocardium as well as on the peri- 
cardium and epicardium. According to Kitt, the tumors take their 
origin from the sub-endocardial tissues, are commonly pedunculate, 
and connected with a trabecula, papillary muscle, or tendon. Tumors 
which project into the cardiac cavity may reach the size of the fist. 



340 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



Myocardium. 

Dissolutions of Continuity in the myocardium cause death. 
They are produced by injuries from the outside (stabs and shot 
wounds) and by spontaneous rupture. Spontaneous rupture is 
observed as a sequela of fatty metamorphosis of or infestation of 
the myocardium with parasites (echinococci). In old horses, 
atheromatosis of the auricles sometimes leads to rupture of the 
heart. Death occurs from hemorrhage into the pericardium. 



Fig. 87. 



Fig. 86. 




wmm 

1 I i 

mm w 1\ m\ wm 

l '] j || -\W 

Incipient fatty metamor- 
phosis of the cardiac 
muscle. 




Heart of a hog infected with Cysticercus 
celluiosae. 



Degenerations. — The most important alterations of the myo- 
cardium are cloudy swelling and fatty metamorphosis (grayish-red 
or grayish-yellow discoloration, cloudy and soft, friable consistency). 
Both forms of degeneration arise under the same conditions as 
those of the liver and kidneys. 

Circulatory Disturbances and Inflammations.— Embolic in- 
farcts are observed in the myocardium in malignant foot and mouth 
disease of cattle (Johne). Muller observed a case of the formation 
of multiple abscess in the myocardium of a cow which, one year 



CIRCULATORY APPARATUS 341 

previously, suffered from an acute attack of foot-and-mouth disease. 
Metastatic abscesses may develop in the myocardium in association 
with other processes which are ushered in with suppuration. This 
is quite frequent in cases of metritis and is occasionally observed 
also in consequence of contagious coryza and suppurative ompha- 
lophlebitis (Kitt). The abscesses may also a,rise from necrotic foci 
in the myocardium which are due to embolic transportation of the 
necrosis bacilli (Bang and the author). 

Infectious Granulations. — In rare cases tuberculosis of the 
myocardium develops in food animals. In the few cases which 
have been seen by the author, the tuberculous areas exhibited the 
characteristic form of hemorrhagic infarcts. 

Parasites. — la the myocardium there is frequently observed 
injurious cysticerci, especially C. bovis in cattle and C. celluloscB in 
hogs and sheep. The parasites show a predilection for a position 
under the epicardium and endocardium. They may, however, pene- 
trate the whole musculature of the heart. Furthermore, echino- 
-cocci are occasionally met with in the myocardium. They may 
occasion sudden death by rupture of the connective tissue capsule 
and the escape of the encysted worms into the ventricles. Large 
echinococci, however, may, in and of themselves, and without rup- 
ture of their capsules, produce threatening symptoms and sudden 
death from cardiac paralysis, especially when they have their seat 
in the septum of the heart. 

(b) Blood Vessels. 

As a noteworthy local disease of the blood vessels, attention 
should be called to verminous aneurisms of the branches of the 
abdominal aorta., especially of the trunk of the anterior mesenteric 
artery in the horse. This verminous aneurism, which, as is well 
■known, is caused by Strongylus armatus, may reach quite considerable 
proportions without causing any disturbances in the health of the 
horse. Occasionally a fatal hemorrhage is observed in consequence 
of the rupture of the wall of the aneurism. 

Calcification is sometimes observed in the aorta of cattle. The 
intima of the vessel, which is distinguished by its inflexibility, is 
permeated with cloudy-white, sharply-delimited, leaf-shaped deposits 
of lime, the middle portion of which is concave. Rough, sand-like 
deposits may exist at the same time (Kitt). For purulent inflamma- 
tions of the walls of the blood vessels, see under " Pyemia." 



342 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



6.— Lymphatic Glands. 

The lymphatic glands have an important physiological role. 
They act as a filtering apparatus and thereby purify the lymph 
stream from admixtures of foreign substances before it passes into 
the blood circulation. The larger corpuscular elements are cer- 
tainly filtered out of the lymph. The filter is likewise effective 
even for bacteria, in different degrees in different animals. Thus, 
in cattle and hogs the lymph glands may for a long time restrict a 
tubercular process to the point of origin and prevent an infection 
of the blood. Pyogenic bacteria are also prevented from entering 
the blood circulation by the lymph glands of food animals. In the 
smaller animals — for instance, in the experimental animals of the 
laboratory — this protective function is much less effectively per- 
formed. 

Inflammations. — The lymph glands react very readily to irrita- 
tion. They are therefore regularly inflamed when inflammatory 
processes occur in their tributary area. In ordinary inflammatory 
swelling, the lymphatic glands are enlarged and on cross section 
more fluid exudes. In more advanced stages of lymphadenitis, 
hemorrhages into the tissue of the lymphatic glands are associated 
with the original process (hemorrhagic lymphadenitis). 

A swelling of all the. lymphatic glands is observed in acute 
infectious diseases and in chronic diseases which have become 
acute ; for example, in sepsis, pyemia, and chronic tuberculosis after 
the entrance of the tubercle bacilli into the blood. 

Inflammations of the lymphatic glands usually disappear as 
rapidly as they arise. Yellow-colored spots may remain as evidence 
of the hemorrhages which sometimes accompany inflammations. 

Specific Alterations. — In contrast with simple adenitis as a 
sequela of ordinary inflammatory processes, all inflammations of 
other sorts are due to the effect of specific pathogenic micro- 
organisms. Thus, indurating lymphadenitis is produced by the 
glanders bacillus, lymphadenitis with abscesses by the streptococci 
of contagious coryza ; casefying lymphadenitis by the bacilli of 
tuberculosis, pseudo-tuberculosis, and hog cholera. The ray 
fungus {Actinomyces hovis) produces in domestic animals no true 
inflammation, but simply typical granulations in lymphatic glands. 
It is of special importance in making a differential diagnosis to> 



LYMPHATIC GLANDS 343 

know that purulent processes in domestic animals are not capable 
of producing suppurations in the lymphatic glands and that casea- 
tion of the lymph glands, the important criterion in tuberculous 
processes, occurs only in tuberculosis, pseudo-tuberculosis and hog 
cholera. 

In glanderous lymphadenitis, tubercles are found in the swollen 
lymphatic glands which disintegrate in the center and become case- 
fied but not calcined (Csoker, Kitt and Schiitz). Glanderous lymph 
glands, according to Schiitz, become enlarged at first and shiny on 
cross section, with a reddish or pale-gray color ; later they become 
somewhat dryer and of a more velvety or roughish feel upon cross 
section. The size of the swollen gland does not exceed that of a 
walnut or plum, as a rule. A whole cluster of lymph glands is 
rarely affected. As a rule, the glanderous alterations are restricted 
to a portion of the lymph glands. The lymphatic glands are pene- 
trated by callous-like, white, connective tissue strands which project 
inward from the thickened capsule. On cross section there appear 
indistinctly marked, small, grayish-yellow and yellow spots which 
lie very close to one another, or scattered in the glandular tissue. 
These spots in cases of fresh infection are often difficult to recognize. 
They present in such cases minute particles with a puriform disin- 
tegration. If the alterations are of longer standing, the spots 
become cloudy, white, dryish, caseous and mortar-like. Simulta- 
neously the induration and cicatricial contraction of the newly 
formed connective tissue proceeds in the lymphatic glands, and the 
cloudy deposits, which often possess an angular form, appear like 
foreign particles which have been inserted into the cicatricial mass. 
Total caseation of the lymphatic glands does not occur in glanders, 
according to Schiitz. Exceptionally, in consequence of glanderous 
infection, they may be modified into white, callous, bacon-like 
masses of the size of a goose egg, which inclose cavities containing 
an oily, fluid, gray pus (Kitt). 

In actinomycosis of the lymphatic glands, a macroscopically- 
visible, roughened, hard character of the lymphatic glands is 
observed. Under the microscope, on the other hand, a uniform 
accumulation of the epithelioid and giant cells is observed around 
the mycelium of the ray fungus. 

Finally, in tuberculosis, which is the most important disease of 
the lymphatic glands in meat inspection, there is at first a simple 
swelling, enlargement and increase in the fluid content ; then minute 
tubercles, which are distinguished from the surrounding tissue by 
their gray color, are demonstrable. Later, larger, round tubercles 



344 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



are found, the centers of which appear to be cloudy in consequence 
of caseation. (Compare Fig. 76, a and b). Aud, lastly, a calcifica- 
tion usually appears in the place of the caseation. The individual 
foci either remaiu separated or fused together. In the first place, 
isolated tubercles are observed in the lymphatic glands, and in the 
latter case a uniform replacement of the normal tissue of the 
lymphatic glands by casefied or calcified masses. Calcification may 
progress so far that the lymphatic glands can no longer be cut 
with a knife. Afc the same time the lymphatic glands are enlarged 
to twenty or more times their original volume. 



Pig. 88. 




mm i § 



:' ■ ; ■■,-..■,■.■ 



«£ 



;;;■;■■■ 














Miliary tubercle with numerous giant cells, X 75 diameters. 



Diagnosis of tuberculous alterations in the lymphatic glands. — In 
the practice of meat inspection, one sometimes makes the highly 
astonishing observation that only those glands which are casefied 
and calcified are considered and treated as tuberculous. The danger 
to the public from such a method of treatment is evident from the 
preceding discussion, without further argument. The incipient 
swellings of the lymphatic glands with eruption of minute tubercles 
are more dangerous than the old alterations in which calcification 
has already occurred. The experienced inspector readily distin- 
guishes macroscopically aud with certainty simple lymphadenitis 
from tuberculous swelling. In the former the color of the cut 
surface is usually white ; in the latter, more grayish. Further- 
more, the author has found that an examination of the cut surface 



LYMPHATIC GLANDS 345 

with a hand lens may offer, much assistance in the establishment of 
a diagnosis (recognition of minute tubercles). A still better pro- 
cedure, however, consists in an examination of a teased preparation 
from the suspected lymph glands with a magnification of about 
forty diameters (the author). It is thereby possible in cases of 
simple hyperplasia to observe a uniformly transparent tissue. In 
tuberculosis, on the other hand, transparent tissue is represented 
by cloudy areas which, as a rule, appear roundish aud under a 
somewhat greater magnification exhibit in their interior necrotic 
giant cells in the form of dark, roundish or oval structures (Fig. 8). 
For details on this point and on the important differential diagnosis, 
from a sanitary standpoint, between the alterations in tuberculosis 
and in hog cholera in the lymphatic glands, see under "Tuber- 
culosis." 

Tumors. — Sarcomata, carcinomata, and so-called lymphomata 
occur in the lymphatic glands. The latter are the most important 
tumors of the lymphatic glands in so far as their frequency and sig- 
nificance in meat inspection are concerned. 

Sarcomata may develop primarily in the lymphatic glands. 
Carcinomata, on the other hand, always penetrate into the organs in 
question in consequence of metastases. Lymphomata are distin- 
guished as soft and hard. We are chiefly interested here with soft 
lymphomata on account of their frequent occurrence in food ani- 
mals. They represent soft, "almost fluctuating" tumors which 
may attain an enormous volume (the size of a man's head and 
larger). Under the microscope, one finds the same elements which 
are present in the normal lymphatic gland. It is noteworthy that 
soft lymphomata may occur simultaneously in a number of 
lymphatic glands, also in the lymphatic follicles of different organs, 
in the spleen, and, in young animals, in the thymus. On the other 
hand, organs which do not belong, to the lymphatic apparatus, like 
the liver and kidneys, may be affected with lymphomata by meta- 
stasis. 

Soft lymphomata are a symptom of constitutional disease. 
According as the blood is affected or not, we speak of leukemic 
lymphomata in cases of pronounced leukemia (increase in the num- 
ber of white blood corpuscles), or of pseudo-leukemia (Cohnheim), 
in cases where the blood shows no alteration in the numerical 
relation betwoen the red and white blood corpuscles. For judg- 
ment, see under "Leukemia" and" Pseudo-leukemia." 



346 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

Parasites. — Among the animal parasites, there frequently 
occur, in the lymphatic glands, pentastomum larvae (mesenteric 
glands), more rarely cysticerci (in cases of excessive invasion), and, 
occasionally, echinococci. All three parasites may become casefied 
and calcified. In this condition the alterations of parasitic origin 
may be confused with tuberculosis. Casefied parasites, however, 
may be easily distinguished from tuberculous areas by simple 
microscopic examination (a teased preparation with a slight magnifi- 
cation). During this examination one finds in the parasitic altera- 
tions either^the whole body of the worm or characteristic portions 
of it, viz.: claws in the case of pentastomes, and calcareous bodies 
in the case of cysticerci; (in the case of C. cellulosse, also, hooks); 
and striated portions of membranes in the case of echinococci. 
Leuckart reports the finding of a round worm larva in the 
mesenteric glands of a beef animal. The parasite was surrounded 
by a connective tissue capsule and lay rolled up in it. 

7.— Spleen. 

The serous peritoneal covering of the spleen may exhibit the 
same alterations as the peritoneum. In tuberculosis, the peritoneal 
covering of the spleen is often more decidedly affected than the 
remainder of the peritoneum. 

The parenchyma of the spleen is the site of various important 
alterations. We find in the splenic parenchyma metastatic tumors 
(sarcomata and carcinomata), leukemic and pseudo-leukemic enlarge- 
ment of the follicles, metastatic abscesses (in pyemia), and embolic 
masses of roundish form and varying size in tuberculosis and 
glanders. Among the animal parasites, the spleen may be infested 
with echinococci, wandering liver flukes in cysts, as in the lungs, 
and pentastomum larvae. 

The most important alteration of the spleen is acute splenic 
tumor. This is pathognomonic for Texas fever, anthrax and swine 
erysipelas. To a lesser extent, splenic tumor may appear also in 
other infectious diseases. In these cases, however, it possesses less 
significance than in Texas fever, anthrax and erysipelas. 

A considerable increase in the volume of the spleen, which may 
be confused with infectious splenic tumor, arises in consequence of 
the multiple formation of infarcts in the branches of the splenic 
artery. The inciting cause to this condition is found in endocarditis. 
An infarct in the spleen consists, as in the case of a renal or pul- 
monary infarct, of round or wedge-shaped masses which are at first 



LYMPHATIC GLANDS 347 

dark-red, but later appear yellowish or white in consequence of a 
modification and resorption of the coloring matter of the blood. 
The infarcts of the spleen are raised above the surrounding tissue 
in the form of a tumor. In cases of occlusion of several small 
branches or one large arterial branch, the spleen may enlarge to 
two, three, or more times its normal size. The sequela of such an 
extensive formation of infarcts is usually a considerable shrink- 
ing of the spleen after the necrotic infarcted masses have been 
resorbed. 

The essential characteristics of splenic infarcts are the round 
or wedge-shaped contour, harder consistency, and discoloration of 
the delimited areas — an evidence of embolic, thrombic occlusion of 
individual branches of the splenic artery. 

Alterations similar to those caused by the formation of hemor- 
rhagic infarcts may occur in hogs in consequence of a rotation of 
the spleen around its longitudinal axis (Glage). The spleen in 
hogs is, as an appendix to the large omentum, not so securely fixed 
in its position as is the spleen of cattle and sheep. If the spleen is 
rotated in consequence of external agencies or variations in the 
degree of fulness of the internal organs, violent stoppage of the 
circulation in the spleen may occur in consequence of torsion of the 
splenic blood vessels. This is most likely to occur in old animals 
with ligaments devoid of fat. If the spleen remains in its abnormal 
position, thrombosis occurs in the vascular trunks of the ligaments 
at the point of torsion and consequently at first an anemic necrosis, 
and later, after resorption of the disintegrated mass, a shrinking of 
the spleen, as in the case of the formation of infarcts. 

As a means of distinguishing between splenic tumor due to tor- 
sion and infectious tumor in anthrax, Glage considers it an impor- 
tant fact that in torsion of the spleen the pulp of the organ, in spite 
of its high blood content, is not softened. 

In hogs, as a sequela of the above described alterations, we 
frequently find completely shrivelled spleens with organized thrombi 
in the splenic artery. In such cases, which are otherwise without 
significance for meat inspection, we may occasionally observe a new 
formation of small accessory spleens on the omentum. 

T. Adam observed swellings in the spleen up to four times its 
original volume in cattle which before slaughter appeared to be in 
perfect health. Adam suspected a horn thrust as the cause. Per- 
haps, however, they were cases of physiological swelling in animals 
which had been fed and watered immediately before slaughter 
(compare page 170) ; for, after traumatic injuries, extensive hemor- 



348 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

rliages may occur in the tissue of the spleen, but not a uniform 
swelling of the spleen. 

"With reference to chronic splenic tumor in leukemia and 
pseudo-leukemia, compare page 371. 

8.— Nervous System. 

(a) Central Nervous System. 

The diseases of the central nervous system, brain and spinal 
cord are of slight importance from a sanitary police standpoint, for 
they do not lend the meat of animals any dangerous property. The 
only diseases of interest in this connection are wounds, inflamma- 
tions, tumors and parasites of the organs of the central nervous 
system as causes of natural death or emergency slaughter. 

Brain. 

Of the pathological processes in the brain, the more important 
are acute meningitis and hydrocephalus chronicus, as well as 
so-called cholesteatomata on the basis of the cranium and in the 
ventricles ; abscesses in consequence of contagious coryza ; menin- 
geal tuberculosis, which appears in the form of tubercles from the 
size of a millet seed to that of lentils in the pia mater, especially at 
the base of the brain, and may be ushered in with inflammatory 
symptoms (tuberculous, basilar meningitis) ; also Coenurus cerebralis 
and occasionally echinococci, Cysticercus bovis and C. cellulo*ce. The 
last two parasites are occasionally found in the brain, even when the 
musculature shows only a slight invasion. Acute meningitis, men- 
ingeal tuberculosis, and Coenurus cerebralis, as a rule, produce such 
serious motor disturbances that an inspection of the living animal 
indicates pathological processes in the brain. 

Spinal Cord. 

In the spinal canal of cattle, in regions where grazing herds are 
regularly infested with warble flies, the young larvse of oestrus very 
frequently occur, according to the investigations of Hinrichsen. 
This author found the larvse in from 40 to 50 per cent, of all cattle 
which grazed on pasture during the summer. The larvse are from 
5 to 13 mm. long, 1 to 2 mm. wide, are located in the subdural adi- 
pose tissue, and have been found isolated or in numbers up to forty 
or more. In the months of December to March, these parasites 



NERVOUS SYSTEM 



349 



may be demonstrated much more frequently in the spinal canal than 
in other months. Koorevaar observed oestrus larvae especially 
abundant from October to January in the subdural fat tissue, while 
they appeared to be absent from April to September. 

In sheep, coenurus bladders may occur in the spinal cord and 
may produce the clinical symptoms of so-called turn sick. 

(b) Peripheral Nerves. 

In certain peripheral nerves we observe, as was already stated 
on page 334, tumor-like thickenings in consequence of fibrous or 
myxo-fibrous neomorphs (Fig. 89). The differential diagnostic 
value of these myxo-fibromata on the intercostal nerves has already 

Fig. 89. 




False neuroma of the intercostal nerves in cattle 



been discussed elsewhere. We should mention the plexiform neuro- 
mata which are occasionally found in cattle on the facial nerve and 
brachial plexus. These neuromata, when extensively developed, 
penetrate the intercostal muscles and may then be recognized in the 
ordinary inspection of slaughtered animals without separating the 
anterior extremity. 

9.— Skeleton. 



In the bony framework of food animals there may occur general 
diseases and alterations which are restricted to the bones. 



350 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

(a) General Diseases. 

The most important general diseases of the bony skeleton are 
rachitis, osteomalacia and osteomyelitis. The last named disease 
is a special form of pyemia and will be discussed, therefore, under 
that head. 

Rachitis. — This is a disease of young animals and among 
food animals is most frequently observed in hogs. It consists in an 
extensive proliferation of the cartilaginous epiphyses and in a pro- 
longed condition of softness in the growth of new-forming bone, a 
process which is explained by defective deposition of lime. The 
consequences of this disturbance in the growth of the bones are the 
well-known swellings and curvatures in the skeleton. 

Judgment. — According to all experience and according to the 
present status of our knowledge concerning the nature of rachitis, 
the meat of rachitic animals can not be regarded as injurious. How- 
ever, the meat of animals which are affected with rachitis of the 
whole skeleton and not one or several bones, as in the snuffle dis- 
ease, is to be excluded from the market for the reason that in acute 
stages of the disease serious internal disturbances, even cachexia, 
may be ushered in. 

Osteomalacia, friability of the bones, in contrast with rachitis, 
is a disease of old age. It is to be considered as calcareous inanition. 
The essential symptom of osteomalacia consists in a decalcification 
and progressive attenuation of the compact cortical substance of the 
bones in consequence of resorption. An abnormal softness and 
friability is thereby produced, and, as a rule, it is bone fractures 
which lead to a recognition of the disease and to emergency slaugh- 
ter of osteomalacic animals. Multiple fractures of the pelvis are 
especially frequent. Maris counted fifteen fractures in the pelvis 
of a cow. The bone marrow in osteomalacia is dark, yellowish-red 
and of a more or less fluid consistency (fluidity of the marrow). 
Moreover, the spongy portion «of the bone is rich in blood and is, 
therefore, dark-colored and softer than normal. Finally, the peri- 
osteum is readily separated from the bones. During life one may 
observe in animals with friable bones a difficulty in getting up and a 
straddling gait. 

Judgment of the meat is determined according to the character 
of the latter. So long as emaciation does not exist, the meat may 
be permitted to go upon the market without restriction, provided 



NEEVOUS SYSTEM 351 

that no wound infection has developed at the point of fracture of 
some broken bone. In case, on the contrary, emaciation has already 
set in, the meat is spoiled (of inferior value), and if cachexia is pres- 
ent, it is highly unfit for food. In the latter case the fat marrow of 
the tubular bones disappears and is replaced by gelatinous, so-called 
jelly, marrow. 

- (b) Local Diseases. 

Fractures. — These are of frequent occurrence in food animals 
and are observed especially in highly fattened hogs in the tubular 
bones of the posterior extremities. Moreover, fractures frequently 
occur in the pelvis of cows and in the ribs of all food animals. 

Judgment. — Fresh bone fractures lend the adjacent meat a 
spoiled or inferior quality in consequence of the infiltration of blood. 
Old, healed bone fractures, on the other hand, are without signifi- 
cance. In complicated fractures in process of healing (in which the 
skin has also suffered lesions) an examination should be made to 
determine whether an infection of the wound exists. 

Infectious Granulations. — With the exception of fractures, the 
specific granulations of tuberculosis and actinomycosis are the only 
diseases of the skeleton of significance in meat inspection. Gland- 
erous alterations in the bone are of no consequence from a sanitary 
police point of view, since they occur merely as complications of 
primary glanderous processes in other organs. In cases of glanders, 
however, the consumption of the meat is absolutely forbidden. The 
case is quite otherwise in tuberculosis and actinomycosis. In these 
diseases embolic processes in the bones of the skeleton should lead 
to an exclusion of the meat from market. 

Tuberculosis may occur in all of the bones. Tuberculous alter- 
ations, however, are most frequently observed in cattle and hogs in 
the dorsal vertebra, sternum and ribs. Tuberculosis of the bones 
of the extremities is less frequent. An affection of these organs is 
indicated to the expert by specific alterations of the superior 
lymphatic glands of the extremities (prescapular and axillary or 
popliteal and inguinal glands). The diseases of the dorsal vertebrae 
and sternum, in the ordinary method of cutting up animals in the 
slaughterhouse, may be demonstrated directly, since the dorsal ver- 
tebrae and the. sternum are cut through the middle with a saw or an 
ax, and thereby the tuberculous masses are immediately brought to 
view, since, as a rule, they take their origin from the middle of 
those bones. 



352 



NOTEWOETHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



The tuberculous areas appear in the form of grayish-red, soft 
granulations which are plainly distinguished from the surrounding 
bony tissue. At first, however, they are not easily separated from 
it (demonstration of the tuberculous nature of such small areas by 
means of an identification of giant cells) (see page 344). In older 
and larger masses which are located in sinuous cavities with smooth 

Fig! 90. 




11 



4fV 








Tuberculosis of the dorsal vertebrae in a hog. a, caseous focus ; 6, deposition of lime 
in the caseous focus; c, bony bands and islands on the border of the caseous 
focus ; d, section of a vertebra after removal of the tuberculous products. 

cells and which are not easily separated from these, the grayish- 
yellow color is more conspicuous. Furthermore, we observe in the 
larger masses a partial calcification which, however, is never 
especially far advanced. The larger masses in the bones, therefore, 
possess the character which has previously been designated as 
fungous. Tuberculous granulations may attain such a volume that 
finally only a seam-like residue of the normal bone tissue remains. 



NERVOUS SYSTEM 353 

It should be noted that iu addition to the vertebral bodies the 
spinous processes are also frequently affected with tuberculosis 
(Fig. 90). 

In tuberculosis of the ribs, which never arises by an outgrowth 
from tuberculous processes in the pleura, but exclusively in a hema- 
togenous manner, one observes a thickening as the first alteration. 
By making a cross-section through the thickened portion with a 
saw we may immediately become convinced of the tuberculous 
nature of the thickening, especially from the presence of the above- 
described granulations. In more acute stages of costal tuberculosis, 
the external layer of the bone is so attenuated that it may be cut 
through with a knife. This is of importance in distinguishing 
between costal tuberculosis and callous thickenings following frac- 
tures of the ribs. 

Actinomycosis of the bones is in cattle an unusually frequent 
primary affection. The lower jaw is most frequently attacked. 
However, primary actinomycosis of the bone may occur on the 
upper jaw. The author observed an interesting case of primary 
actinomycosis of the sternum in a beef animal. In this case infec- 
tion was brought about by a sharp wire which had penetrated 
outwardly from the stomach into the sternum. The ray fungus, by 
its continued multiplication, causes an enlargement and rarefaction 
of the bones. Simultaneously an extensive swelling and later a. 
perforation of the bones at one or more points occur. At the points 
of perforation the actinomycomata project outwardly in the form of 
plugs. Embolic actinomycosis of the bones is of rare occurrence. 
Hertwig described a case of this sort in a hog. In the animal iu 
question, in addition to primary actinomycosis of the mammary 
gland, softened masses of the size of a hazel nut appeared in several 
dorsal vertebrae. In the softened masses was found the ray fungus, 
the presence of which was evident in a microscopic examination, from 
the existence of yellowish granules. 

Parasites. — Exceptionally, echinococci occur in the bones. 
Casefied echinococci may resemble tuberculosis of the bones. The 
demonstration of the characteristic striated membrane of the 
echinococci will protect one from such a mistake in diagnosis. 

Diseases of the Joints. — Local diseases of the joints do not 
require any special discussion. With reference to penetrating 
wounds of the joints and polyarthritis of sucking animals, compare 
the chapter on " Pyemia " and " Septicemia." 



354 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



Articular tuberculosis, which is rarely met with, appears in 
two forms : (1) As tuberculous articular empyemia, characterized 
by slimy purulent exudation, and (2) as so-called fungous arthritis, 
in which the articular cavity is filled with tuberculous granulating 
tissue which grows out from the synovial membrane. 

Presternal Calcification. — Underneath the sternum and sympa- 
thetically affecting this bone in part, a peculiar calcification process 
occurs in fattened cattle and sheep. This deserves to be mentioned 
on account of its scientific interest and the possibility of its being 
mistaken for tuberculosis. In the animals in question one observes, 

Fig. 91. 




Presternal calcification. 
a, section of the sternum ; i, normal sternal pad ; c, lime deposits. 



in the pad formed of elastic and fat tissue, tumors with a roughened 
surface and hard consistency, frequently of the size of a hazel nut 
or that of the fist. After making a cross-section of the sternum 
with a saw, it is apparent that the tumors consist of a strong con- 
nective tissue framework, in the cavities of which a pure white 
gypsum-like mass is deposited. This mass consists of carbonate 
and phosphate of lime. The periphery of the tumors is delimited 
by strongly-developed connective tissue. In some cases, but not 
regularly, the tumor penetrates into the sternum in consequence of 
a proliferation of the part of the sternum which is directly in con- 
tact with the tumor. 



SKELETAL MUSCULATURE 355 

No parasitic cause has been discovered for the above described 
deposition of lime underneath the sternum. It has rather the 
appearance — and this is indicated by the exclusive occurrence of the 
alteration in fat animals — that it arises after a crushing of the ster- 
nal pad while the animals are lying and is due to a simple deposi- 
tion of lime in the crushed parts. The enlargement and progressive 
character of the " tumor " might be explained by the pressure of 
the primary calcareous deposit upon the surrounding tissue. 

10.— Skeletal Musculature. 

Dissolution op Continuity. — Dissolutions of the continuity of 
muscles are often observed in food animals. They occur most fre- 
quently as secondary ruptures in cases of bone fractures. Further- 
more, one may observe in hogs an independent rupture of the 
psoas muscle (from violent pressure upon the animal), as well as in 
the point of union of the musculi graciles (from slipping). In calves 
which are roughly pulled about by the tail, extensive hemorrhages, 
according to Ellinger, may occur in the pelvic connective tissue as 
far up as the adipose capsule of the kidneys. 

The author has already called attention to the frequency of the 
fibrillar muscle ruptures in fat hogs. Since all ruptures of muscles 
are accompanied by bleeding, these ruptures cause so-called multiple 
hemorrhages in the musculature of fattened hogs. 

Fibrillar muscle ruptures and the associated multiple hemor- 
rhages are observed chiefly in the muscular portion of the diaphragm 
and in the muscles of the abdomen and loins, as well as in certain 
muscles of the anterior and posterior extremities, and more rarely 
in the whole musculature, in a more or less uniform manner. The 
number of hogs which show hemorrhages only in the diaphragm is 
a large one. Without including isolated cases of hemorrhages, it 
amounts to about 8 per cent, of all slaughtered animals. 

The animals in question show no pathological symptoms during 
life and the internal organs do not differ in their condition from 
those of healthy animals. My investigations indicate the deposition 
of fat in the contractile portion of the muscle fibers in the form of 
granules, such as occur in fatty metamorphosis, as the cause of 
fibrillar muscle ruptures. As a rule, the muscular portion of the 
diaphragm is most affected. In consequence of the deposition of 
fat, the muscles become softer and more easily torn. Associated 
with this condition is a defective use of the musculature in fattened 



356 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



liogs which favors their easy rupture. In the hemorrhagic areas, 
the red blood corpuscles are in general well preserved. This 
indicates that the immediate cause, the occasion of fibrillar muscle 
ruptures in our cases, is to be sought in the excessive muscular 
work which was required of' the animal shortly before slaughter. 
For fat hogs which in the last months of the fattening process get 
upon their feet only for the purpose of moving to a fall trough, the 
transportation to the slaughterhouse is the first heavy muscular 
work and the longer or forced driving of the hogs is sufficient to 
produce a rupture of the weakened muscular fibers. 

This assumed mode of origin of fibrillar muscle ruptures in. 
fattened hogs stands in complete harmony with the series of events 

Fig. 92. 




Diaphragm of a hog with fibrillar muscle ruptures and consecutive multiple 

hemorrhages. 



which are observed in connection with the atten nation of individual 
muscles and muscle groups. For, even in case of easy transporta- 
tion, a certain degree of dyspnea appears in fattened animals 
whereby an excessive strain is put upon the diaphragm and abdom- 
inal muscles which function in inspiration, while the muscles which 
are used in locomotion are only moderately exercised. The more 
frequent occurrence of affections of individual muscles of the 
extremities by the alterations in question is partly explained by the 
more extensive deposition of fat granules in the fibrillse and partly 
by their especial significance for locomotion. 

Ellinger observed the following sequence in muscles affected 
with fibrillar ruptures : (1) Diaphragm, (2) obturator internus, (3); : 



SKELETAL MUSCULATURE 357 

lumbar muscles, and (4) gracilis and neighboring muscles. The 
other muscles (of the trunk, anterior extremities and neck) were 
also rarely affected in the cases observed by Ellinger, viz.: in only 
3 to 5 per cent, of all hogs which were affected by fibrillar muscle 
ruptures. 

The influence of defective exercise of hogs upon the occurrence 
of fibrillar muscle raptures is shown by the fact that in breeding 
animals, boars as well as breeding sows, which enjoy a natural mode 
of life and especially a freer movement than animals which are 
intended for fattening, muscle hemorrhages are not observed. At 
least the author has never observed them in boars and breeding 
sows. The fatty cloudiness of the striated muscle fibers may be 
demonstrated, on the other hand, in many cases of breeding sows 
which are fattened late in life. 

Judgment of fibrillar muscle ruptures. — Multiple hemorrhages 
caused by fibrillar muscle ruptures lend the affected muscular parts 
quite an abnormal appearance. The muscles appear to be spotted 
with black. This is especially conspicuous after boiling and roast- 
ing pieces of the meat. Such meat, therefore, in spite of its perfect 
harmlessness, can not be considered as a marketable food material. 
In slight cases in which we have to deal merely with alterations of 
the diaphragm or other favorite locations of hemorrhages caused by 
fibrillar muscle ruptures^ the remainder of the meat may be allowed 
upon the market without restriction after the removal of the affected 
part. In addition to the above described hemorrhages, due to 
fibrillar muscle ruptures, there may also appear, in the musculature 
of food animals, hemorrhages which are due to toxic and bacterial 
diseases (phosphorus poisoning, anthrax, black leg, morbus macu- 
losus and septicemia). In these cases there are, in addition to 
other characteristic alterations, hemorrhages in the internal organs. 

Degenerations. — Cloudy swelling and fatty metamorphosis of 
the musculature are less frequent than similar alterations in the 
parenchyma of the internal organs, since they occur only in cases of 
serious toxic and infectious diseases of long standing.* Besides 
these two conditions of degeneration, however, one observes in the 
musculature hyaline or wax-like degeneration (Figs. 94 and 96). 
This alteration, according to the excellent investigations of Zschokke, 
occurs in domesticated animals more frequently than has previously 



* For this reason, even in serious infectious diseases, alterations of the muscu- 
lature may be wanting if the affected animals are seasonably slaughtered. 



358 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



"been assumed. As was first shown by Frohner, it is a symptom of 
hemoglobinuria in the horse. Moreover, Zschokke observed hyaline 
degeneration of the musculature in parturient paresis and morbus 
maculosus. According to Zschokke, the muscles do not necessarily 
show any conspicuous, gross anatomical changes in hyaline degener- 
ation; merely the affected fibers are somewhat thickened. The sarco- 
lemma is preserved, but the protoplasm shows extensive alterations. 
The striation becomes less conspicuous, the striae are more widely 
separated from one another and strongly arched. Finally, the trans- 
verse longitudinal striation disappears entirely. The protoplasm 
then appears to have ruptured in the form of meshes, or homogene- 
ous, glistening, quadrate and roundish masses are formed which 



Fig. 93. 





Cloudy swelling and fatty degeneration of the musculature, a, normal muscle fiber; 
b, cloudy swelling; c, slight, and d, extensive fatty degeneration. 



occupy the breadth of the muscle fiber. The muscle fiber is thereby 
interrupted in its continuity and hiatuses appear between the 
masses. Furthermore, Zschokke demonstrated that the masses 
possess a greater affinity for stains, especially hematoxylin. Macro- 
scopically, musculature affected with hyaline degeneration does not 
show a striking discoloration until more than one-fifth of the fibers 
are diseased. Then the affected muscles appear pale, like the 
muscles of fish. Their cut surface soon becomes brick-red on 
exposure to the air, probably in consequence of the increased power 
of oxidation of the methemoglobin (Zschokke). 

A considerable hyaline muscle degeneration, with a fish-like 
appearance of the musculature, may be observed in cattle as well as 
in the horse. Thus the Munchener Jahresberichte report several 



SKELETAL MUSCULATURE 



359 



cases of pronounced hyaline degeneration in cattle and young 
calves. Furthermore, Hiittner described a case in a steer in which 
the whole musculature was altered, and, finally, Repiquet described 
two cases in calves. Repiquet calls attention to the fact that in the 
musculature of "white" or "boiled" calves the fibrillae are much 
more conspicuous than normally, are swollen, opaque, and tinged 
with yellow or gray. Repiquet compared the cut surface with rotten 
wood. The alteration, in both cases investigated by Repiquet, was 
shown in all parts of the muscles of the trunk and affected from 
one-tenth to two-fifths of the total musculature. 

Fig. 94. 




'■a, 



>6 



Hyaline degeneration of the musculature in the horse in case of hemoglobinuria (after 
Zschokke). a, hyaline fragments; i, cleavage and beginning of hyaline disin- 
tegration, X 100 diameters. 



Judgment. — Among the degenerations of the musculature, it is 
only the hyaline which possesses an independent significance. Meat 
altered by hyaline degeneration, on account of its abnormal appear- 
ance and poor keeping quality (Repiquet), is undoubtedly a spoiled 
(inferior) food material. According to Hiittner, beef affected by 
hyaline degeneration roasts and boils like veal and, according to the 
statements of consumers, is not of good flavor. Hiittner therefore 
favors the admission of the meat to the market under declaration. 



360 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

This procedure, however, is justified only when during the inspec- 
tion of the slaughtered animals alterations other than hyaline muscle 
degeneration are not found and when the latter must be considered 
as an independent alteration incident to the death agony. 

Hyaline muscle degeneration in the hog.—P^ partial hyaline degen- 
eration of the musculature is frequently seen in hogs. Duncker 
first called attention to this fact. He considered the alteration as 
originally due to infection by the ray fungus. The assumption of 
Duncker, however, immediately met with vigorous opposition. 
Especially, Johne insists that the depositions in the musculature 
described by Duncker can not be identical with Actinomyces bovis, 
for the reason that they never exhibit the well-known, club-shaped 
end swellings of the radial hyphse. Furthermore, in the tissue 
surrounding the structures described by Duncker, the acute inflam- 
matory reaction which occurs in infection by Actinomyces bovis, 
immediately after penetration of its minute mycelia, is wanting. 
Ziirn went further and expressed a doubt whether the structures in 
question were of a fungous nature at all. 

Olt deserves credit for having studied the muscular disease 
in question and for having demonstrated that the supposed fungous 
mycelia were nothiug more than broken pieces of the specifically 
altered contractile content of the muscle fibers. They show a 
stronger affinity for stains than intact sarcoplasm, and in the prepar- 
ations which Duncker stained with cochineal may have been 
considered as deposits of foreign substance. 

Macroscopically, the specifically degenerated musculature is 
conspicuous for its pale-red or grayish color, sprinkled with white, 
its softer consistency and high fluid content. The white sprinkling 
is in the form of minute points and follows the course of the muscle 
fibers. The consistency of the degenerated musculature is so 
reduced that a moderate pressure with the finger is sufficient to 
penetrate it. The abnormal fluid content in the favorite points for 
location of the degeneration (muscular part of the diaphragm and 
abdominal muscles) is so great that one could speak of a regular 
muscle edema. This edema is of diagnostic value. It is, moreover, 
noteworthy that the fluid which permeates the altered muscle tissue 
after cooling of the meat is pressed out and appears in large quan- 
tities on the upper surface. This phenomenon is explained by the 
post mortem rigor of the affected muscle fibers. 

In a microscopic examination one observes, according to Olt, 
whose investigations were confirmsd by the simultaneous investi- 



SKELETAL MUSCULATURE 



361 



gations of Davids and later by myself, in the incipient stages of the 
loosening of the sarcoplasm or contractile content of the sarcolemina, 
a gradual disappearance and fusion of the same. Thereby, gaps 
appear which enlarge to form fissures and spherical cavities and 
dissolutions of continuity arise in the muscle fibers to such an extent 
that the contractile content falls into irregular broken pieces of 
varying size (Fig. 95). All disintegrated fragments are uniformly 
opaque, but may, however, still exhibit an evident transverse stria- 
tion. Furthermore, in consequence of contraction of unaffected 



Fig. 95. 




\ 



Hyaline muscle degeneration in hogs, a, intact fiber; b, moniliform arrangement of 
plasma debris; c, point of rupture of a muscle fiber. In other parts of the 
preparation there are unaffected muscle fibers together with plasma debris 
of various forms, rupture of the muscle fibers, loss of the sarcolemma and en- 
largement of the intermuscular tissue. X 85 diameters. 

fibers, ruptures of the degenerated fibers may be produced (Fig. 
96, c) as well as a rounding-off of the protoplasmic debris, so that in 
affected muscle fibers round or oval protoplasmic balls are observed 
in a moniliform order (Fig. 95, b). The internal perimysium in 
acute diseases of the muscle fibers is somewhat affected by serous 
infiltration and exhibits a cellular proliferation. Olt was unable to 
demonstrate a thickening of the sarcolemma. The sarcolemma is 
found in the form of a thin membrane over the disintegrated parts. 
Frequently it is torn and in many affected muscle fibers it is not to 
be recognized at all. ■ ■< 



362 



NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 



With regard to the occurrence of the above described process, 
it is observed most frequently in hogs. It is also found, however, 
as shown by P. Falk, quite often in the musculature of calves and 
sheep. Its favorite locations are the muscular parts of the dia- 
phragm, the abdominal muscles and the intercostal muscles. As a 
rule, the disease is restricted to the muscular part of the diaphragm. 
Alterations of the whole striated musculature are exceedingly rare. 



Fig. 96. 



CL 




Hyaline muscle degeneration in hogs. A part of Fig. 95 magnified 275 times. 
a, intact muscle fiber; b, plasma debris with coccus-like deposits; c, point of rupture 
of muscle fiber. The partial solution of the sarcolemma, the enlargement of the 
intermuscular tissue, and the chaotic arrangement of the plasma debris are 
shown more distinctly than in Fig. 95. j 



Opinions differ concerning the cause of the alteration. Olt 
believes that he saw streptococci in the altered portions of the 
muscles. Davids, on the other hand, called attention to the simi- 
larity of the structures in question to the sarcous elements into 
which the muscle fibers disintegrated. Davids considered the 
whole phenomenon as a simple hyaline degeneration, and, with 
Erb, regards it as a post mortem process which in the case in 
question is due to injuries (crashing of the musculature during 
slaughter). 



SKELETAL MUSCULATUEE 363 

Judgment. — Previously it was customary to exclude from the 
market only those hogs in which so extensive an alteration existed 
that the whole musculature was discolored grayish-red and was 
strongly infiltrated with water. Even rejected animals, however, 
were tried out and the rendered fat was utilized as a human food 
material. In cases where the alterations were restricted to indi- 
vidual muscle parts, as, for example, to the diaphragm or abdominal 
muscles, only those parts were removed. The frequently-occurring 
slight alterations were ignored. When extensive alterations were 
present, it was customary to take the precaution of postponing the 
decision until after twenty-four honrs for the reason that the dis- 
coloration and especially the watery character of the musculature 
was more conspicuous than immediately after slaughter. 

This procedure is fully justified, for the reason that, since the 
investigation of Davids, there is no foundation for the assumption 
of an injurious character of the meat in question. 

Iridescent character of meat. — In highly fattened hogs which 
neither before slaughter, nor during ordinary inspection after 
slaughter, exhibited any other alteration, we find with comparative 
frequency a peculiar alteration of the color and appearance of the 
longissimus dorsi. This muscle is either entirely or partly discol- 
ored grayish, and of a shining appearance upon the cut surface. 
Under the microscope the muscle fibers appear to be completely 
intact. 

Undoubtedly we have in the anomaly in question a deficiency 
in the coloring matter of the muscle. The discoloration of the 
muscle favors this view, as well as the appearance of the iridescent 
property in boiled and pickled normal meat, in which an artificial 
destruction of the coloring matter of the muscle has taken place. 
Legge called attention to the iridescence of boiled and pickled 
meat. 

The gray discoloration and the iridescence of the longissimus 
dorsi are apparently due to the unhygienic surroundings and nutri- 
tion of the hogs. 

Judgment. — Iridescent muscles are found in perfectly healthy 
highly fattened animals and are distinguished merely by the lack of 
the red color in normal muscles. Since the alteration is sufficiently 
evident from its conspicuous character and since the buying public, 
according to past experience, takes no exception to the abnormal 
appearance of iridescent musculature, we may abstain from placing 
any trade restrictions upon the meat in question. 



364 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

Pale condition of musculature. — Faucon found, in a well-nourished 
iour-year-old cow, which before slaughter had been perfectly 
healthy, that the musculature was pale and of a white color as in 
milk-fed calves. The white beef differed from veal only in its dryer 
condition and stronger development of the muscle fibers. 

A similar case was observed by Baillet in a beef animal in 1878. 
Moreover, Villain described a similar case in sheep. 

Tallow-like alteration (" steatosis '.'.) of the musculature. — Castellant 
found in a beef animal nearly one-third of the musculature trans- 
formed into a tissue resembling adipose tissue. 

Inflammations. — Parenchymatous myositis associated with hem- 
orrhage is found in cases of muscular rheumatism. In calves an 
interstitial myositis occurs which is probably associated with 
primary degenerative processes of the muscle fibers. This alteration 
lias been called "chicken-meat formation" for the reason that the 
musculature shows a grayish- white color resembling that of chicken 
meat. 

Stoss described a case of this sort in which the whole muscula- 
ture of a young beef animal possessed a pale yellowish-red ground 
color and exhibited yellowish or yellowish-green spots at intervals 
of about 1 cm. All of the lymphatic glands were enlarged. By a 
microscopic examination Sfcoss found an extensive proliferation of 
the intramuscular tissue and an atrophy of the muscle fibers, which 
was especially pronounced in tlie yellowish-green areas. 

Bayersdorfer observed a similar case in a bull. The whole 
musculature exhibited a white color and at the same time a tough 
consistency. 

Judgment. — Meat which exhibits the phenomenon of intersti- 
tial myositis mast be considered as a spoiled (inferior) food material 
and as such must be excluded from free traffic. 

Tumors. — Primary tumors in the musculature are rare. Second- 
arily, however, sarcomata and also carcinomata may occur in the 
musculature. Moreover, in the musculature of cattle we may 
observe a peculiar, thus far insufficiently investigated, tumor forma- 
tion. 

In all, the author has seen four such cases of muscle tumors in 
cattle. In these cases the whole musculature, but in the most 
pronounced manner the muscles of the shoulder, sides of the chest 
iind tail, were filled with innumerable granules and tubercles (Fig. 



."SKELETAL MUSCULATURE 



365 



9,7). All transition stages were observed between structures of the 
size of a lentil and those as large as a walnut. On the periphery of 
the larger tubercles smaller tubercles were frequently observed. 
The color of the neomorphic tissue was grayish- white and its con- 
sistency was firm, as in fibromata. The cut surface was dry, 
uniformly gray, and showed punctate yellow-colored cavities 
in the center. The larger the tubercles the more numerous were 
the punctate cloudy areas. All organs, except the musculature^ 
were sound. According to their histological structure, the tumors 
were to be considered as fibro-sarcomata. Apparently, however,, 
these were cases of neomorphic formation due to infection. 



Fig. 97. 




Beef tail with fibrosarcoma-like neomorphs. 

In all cases observed by the author, the meat, on account of ~ 
the general distribution of neomorphic formations, had to be- 
excluded from consumption as highly unfit for food. 

Infectious Granulations. — Among the infectious granulations 
in the musculature, we may mention only those which are caused 
by the tubercle bacillus, actinomyces and botryomyces. 

Muscular tuberculosis is of very rare occurrence in food 
animals, if we disregard the otherwise quite rare cases in which the 
tuberculous process extends secondarily to the surrounding inter- 
fibrillar tissue from the bone or a lymph gland lying in the muscu- 
lature . 

Hertwig described a case of embolic primary tuberculosis of 
the musculature in a beef animal. During the examination of a 
four-year-old steer, a pronounced tuberculous alteration of the 
mesenteric glands was demonstrated. The intestine itself was not 
affected. In the parenchyma of the lungs, liver and kidneys, 
embolic masses of the size of walnuts were found. The inguinal 
and prescapular glands were enlarged to three or five times their 
normal size and contained caseous masses of varying size. Further- 



366 NOTEWORTHY ORGANIC DISEASES 

more, in the subcutaneous connective tissue and skin muscles, and, 
sparingly, in the deeper lying musculature, especially on the inferior 
portions of the thorax, on the shoulders, as well as on the interior 
surfaces of the thighs, flat plaques and moniliform strands were to 
be observed, which consisted of larger and smaller tubercles and 
followed the direction of the connective tissue and muscle fibers. 
The tuberculous nature of these structures was demonstrated by a 
microscopic examination and by inoculation. 

Similar cases were subsequently reported by Godbille, Hiittuer, 
Strose, Kezevitsch, Mychkine and others. 

In cases of the extension of tuberculosis from bones and lymph 
glands to the neighboring musculature (secondary muscular tuber- 
culosis) grayish-yellow masses are formed, varying in size from a 
walnut to that of a child's head by a typical formation in the intra- 
muscular tissue with atrophy of the muscular fibrillse. 

Actinomycosis and botryomycosis of the musculature are char- 
acterized by an interstitial myositis which develops in the form of 
masses in the neighborhood of the colonies of actinomyces and 
botryomyces, or appears in a diffuse condition and later affects 
larger portions of the musculature as in actinomycotic wooden 
tongue. 

The parasites which occur in the musculature, namely, 
Miescher's sacs, cysticerci and trichinae, are discussed in the chapter 
on "Invasion Diseases." 



IX. 
ANOMALIES OF THE BLOOD. 



Of the anomalous conditions of the blood which occur in food 
animals, the following are of importance for meat inspection : 
Deficiency of blood (oligemia, anemia) ; increase in water content 
(hydremia) ; increase in the number of white blood corpuscles 
(leukemia) ; and, finally, the appearance of abnormal constituents 
(hemoglobinemia, cholemia and uremia). 

Fluctuations in the amount of blood and its composition 
possess little sanitary interest of themselves. They only become 
important through certain phenomena which they may produce in 
the solid tissues. The alterations of the blood mentioned above 
are, therefore, unimportant so long as they remain without recog- 
nizable influence upon the whole organism or upon the meat. 

1. — Deficiency of Blood (Oligemia, Anemia). 

Nature and Origin. — By the term deficiency of blood we 
understand a decrease in the normal quantity of blood. This may 
be due to various circumstances. Attention has already been called 
to the fact (p. 131) that an excessively fat condition, especially in 
hogs, is usually accompanied with a striking diminution in the 
quantity of blood. This sort of oligemia, which is in part relative, 
may be characterized as physiological. Pathological deficiency of 
blood, however, arises when the equilibrium between the income 
and outgo of the body is disturbed, thus : 

By defective nutrition or disturbances of assimilation ; or by 
unusual loss of substance (frequent hemorrhages and parasites). 

These forms of anemia are included in the term symptomatic 
anemia, in contrast with essential or progressive pernicious anemia, 
which may develop from an unknown cause. 

The cases of pathological deficiency of blood which are observed 
among food animals are, with few exceptions, of a symptomatic 

nature. The primary affection consists, as a rule, in the invasion of 

mr 



368 ANOMALIES OP THE BLOOD 

parasites (stomach, intestinal, liver and lung worms), which cause a 
diminution in the quantity of the blood, either directly, through 
removal of nutritive materials, or indirectly, through injury to the 
important vegetative organs (production of hemorrhages or inflam- 
mation). Moreover, anemia may occur as a consequence of non- 
parasitic organic diseases, such as chronic gastric and intestinal 
catarrh and chronic infectious diseases, like tuberculosis. 

Autopsies in Symptomatic Anemia. — The alterations which are 
caused by symptomatic anemia vary according to the degree of the 
latter. Mild cases influence the general condition only slightly. 
In severe cases, on the other hand, emaciation is a constant phe- 
nomenon. Between these degrees, all intermediate stages exist. 

The blood is characterized in all cases by its diminished 
quantity and weak staining power. In contrast with pernicious 
anemia, it is worthy of mention that even in the severest cases of 
symptomatic deficiency of blood, the parenchyma and skeletal mus- 
culature is, as a rule, intact. 

Schaper found a considerable diminution in the number of red 
blood corpuscles and in the content of hemoglobin, in cases of ane- 
mia resulting from distomatosis. The blood of healthy sheep 
contains from 11,000,000 to 12,000,000 red blood corpuscles per cm.; 
in anemic animals Schaper found only 6,000,000 to 10,000,000. 

Judgment of Symptomatic Anemia. — The meat of animals which 
are affected with symptomatic anemia is not injurious to health if 
the primary affection which causes the deficiency of blood has not 
occasioned a general disease. This may be the case in certain 
forms of tuberculosis. In ordinary cases of symptomatic anemia in 
consequence of infestation by worms, the above statement does not 
hold true. In such cases the meat may become highly unfit for food 
if the deficiency of blood is accompanied with emaciation. If the 
condition of nutrition of the animals is still comparatively good and 
if the animals are to be characterized as poor and not as emaciated 
(compare p. 243), there is no good reason for restricting the free 
sale of the meat. 

Essential {progressive pernicious) anemia differs fundamentally 
from symptomatic deficiency of blood. During life an intermittent 
fever is observed. Furthermore, the disease usually results in 
death. The red blood corpuscles exhibit a marked variation from 
the normal condition (pcecilocytosis). The parenchyma, as well as 



HYDREMIA 369 

the skeletal musculature, becomes cloudy and undergoes fatty meta- 
morphosis. Finally, petechias are found in the serous membranes 
or even in the orgaus. Although this disease possesses all the 
symptoms of au acute general affection, it is impossible to discover 
any cause whatever by post mortem examination. It has rightfully 
been suspected, on account of the great similarity of post mortem 
findings with those which appear in certain toxic and infectious dis- 
eases, that the cause of pernicious anemia is some virus with toxic 
action . 

Silva asserts that in two fatal cases of pernicious anemia in 
man he isolated Staphylococcus pyogenes from the blood of the heart, 
and he entertains no doubt that this micro-organism may be the 
cause of progressive pernicious anemia, for the products of the 
staphylococcus possessed a hemolytic power, and this fact may 
serve to explain correctly the symptoms which appear in pernicious 
anemia : perhaps we have here to deal with a micro-organism of 
attenuated virulence. 

Judgment. — Further investigation is required to determine 
whether the meat of animals affected with pernicious anemia pos- 
sesses harmful properties. It should be remembered in this 
connection that pernicious anemia is also one of the diseases of 
man. If the condition described by Silva is found to be of regular 
occurrence, the meat must be considered injurious to health. At 
any rate, the meat in question must be characterized as highly unfit 
for food and must be absolutely excluded from the market on account 
of the substantial alterations which are seen, not only in the entrails, 
but also in the skeletal muscles. The harm which may be caused 
to the public from this disease is exceedingly slight, since thus far 
the disease has been observed with certainty only in horses, and 
even here with comparative infrequency. 

2. — Hydremia. 

Nature and Occurrence. — Hydremia, as a rule, is the last 
result of acute anemia. It consists in a diminution in the blood of 
the solid constituents and in an increase in its water content. The 
visible symptoms of hydremia, aside from the marked emaciation, 
consist in accumulations of fluid in the subcutis, in the intermus- 
cular connective tissue, and in the body cavities (hydremic cachexia). 
The predisposition of different species of food animals to hydremia 
varies. The sheep is the most susceptible (especially in extensive. 



370 ANOMALIES OF THE BLOOD 

distomatosis and serious invasions of Strongylus contortus) ; young 
cattle are less so, and older cattle and hogs are rarely affected. 

Autopsy. — The shed blood is thin (like meat serum) and reddens 
the hands only slightly. During exenteration, clear, colorless and 
odorless fluids pour out from the abdominal and thoracic cavities. 
The carcass does not stiffen, the connective tissue in the skin and 
between the muscles shows no trace of fat, but rather a more or 
less extensive collection of the fluids already described. The 
meat is watery, the carcass literally drips with fluid, and at the 
same time the muscles are colored grayish-red in the place of the 
customary bright red coloration. Furthermore, the muscles are 
flabby and soft. 

Judgment. — The meat of animals affected with hydremic 
cachexia is to be excluded f torn the market as highly unfit for food 
on account of its great deterioration in quality. 

The so-called cellular dropsy of sugar factory oxen. — Among oxen 
used for draft animals about sugar factories a hydremia is observed 
to which Piitz has given the name " cellular dropsy." The disease 
is observed where excessive feeding with the watery diffusion 
products of beet sugar is practiced. Milch cows are seldom 
affected. In these animals the excretion of water seems to take 
place through the udder. In affected oxen large edematous swell- 
ings appear on the lower surface of the abdomen and on the extrem- 
ities to such an extent that the animals are finally unable to get up 
(" water men "). 

Autopsy. — After slaughter, edematous infiltration of the sub- 
cutaneous and intermuscular connective tissue is observed, together 
with dropsical accumulations in the body cavities. It is a striking 
fact that even in the more acute cases of cellular dropsy the muscu- 
lature retains its normal color and is permeated with white adipose 
tissue which sets readily. This disease is thus distinguished from 
hydremic cachexia. 

Judgment. — A very different decision is to be rendered on cel- 
lular dropsy than on hydremic cachexia, for in the first-named 
disease the characteristic alterations of the musculature are wanting, 
while in hydremic cachexia they are always present. Furthermore, 
the quality of the meat in cases of cellular dropsy improves after 
slaughter, in consequence of evaporation and loss of water. Never- 
theless, the meat is of inferior quality as a food material for the 



LEUKEMIA 371 

reason that its content of albumen is diminished and its keeping 
qualities are not so good as in healthy animals. In the most acute 
cases of the disease, in which loss of water after death fails to take 
place, the same procedure is to be adopted with regard to the meat 
as in the case of hydremic cachexia. With regard to a judgment on 
cellular dropsy, it should be further observed that a superficial 
examination is not sufficient to determine the amount of water in 
the connective tissue between the muscles. For determining this 
point, it is necessary to make deep incisions into the musculature or 
to cut up the animal according to commercial methods. At the 
central abattoir in Berlin, the animal body is allowed to hang in the 
abattoir for twenty-four hours, in order that the final decision may 
be based upon the character of the meat at the end of that period. 
In mild cases the meat drys out within this time and resembles 
normal meat in its appearance, while in acute cases of the disease 
the meat remains unsightly and oleaginous upon its surface. The 
post-mortem alterations permit meat inspectors to form a more 
reliable opinion than could be reached immediately after death. 

3. — Leukemia. 

Nature. — Naturally, by the term leukemia is understood an 
anomalous condition of the blood, in which the most important 
symptom is a considerable increase in the number of the white 
blood corpuscles. In healthy animals the ratio of white to red 
blood corpuscles is approximately 1 to 350 ; in the blood of leukemic 
animals the ratio is much closer, viz., 1 to 50, 1 to 20, or even 1 to 1. 

Autopsy. — Corresponding to the great increase in the number 
of white blood corpuscles, we have in advanced cases of leukemia a 
striking pale-red color of the blood which is apparent to the naked 
eye. The blood may even become purulent (Virchow). Wolff in 
Cleve described a case in a calf in which the blood serum resembled 
milk. In the heart and large vascular trunks a clay-colored coagu- 
lum with purulent accumulations is found in the place of the buff 
coat of fibrinous deposits. Peculiar alterations of the solid tissues 
accompany the anomalous condition of the blood. The spleen is 
considerably enlarged and its follicles are swollen. The color of 
the surface of the spleen is paler than normal, and upon cross sec- 
tion it is bluish-red or raspberry-red. The consistency of the 
organ is firm. Koch described a case of leukemia in a cow in which. 



372 ANOMALIES OF THE BLOOD 

the spleen was 105 cm. long, 39 era. wide and 12 cm. thick. The 
weight of this spleen was 18.05 kg. On cross section the 
organ showed a bright, reddish-brown color, and follicles of the 
size of peas. In a case which was observed by Reggianti and 
Forreggiani in a hog, the spleen was 85 cm. long, 15 cm. wide, 9 
cm. thick, weighed 3 kg., and was as hard as a board. The capsule 
showed a considerable thickening and the cross section had a 
granitic appearance. In the myelogenous form of leukemia the red 
bone marrow is hyperplastic and lighter colored than normal. 
Finally, in the lymphatic form some or all of the lymph glands of 
the body are considerably swollen and softer than normal (" almost 
fluctuating "). The iliac, lumbar, prescapular and axillary glands 
are most affected by the disease. They may reach the size of a 
man's head ; while the other groups of lymphatic glands exhibit 
swelling only to about the size of a potato, or a clenched fist. 

The alterations in the spleen, bone marrow and lymphatic 
glands may exist independently or may occur one after another. 
Furthermore, white tubercles (leukemic tumors) and white spots 
(leukemic infiltrates) may appear in the liver, lungs, kidneys, and 
upon the serous mucous membranes. Hemorrhages may also be 
present in the spleen, mucous membranes, and in the serous mem- 
branes. 

The musculature is of a lighter color than normal and occasion- 
ally it is permeated with numerous ecchymoses. 

According to Caporini, leukemia occurs also in fowls and is 
especially characterized by alterations in the liver. The liver is 
yellowish-white, much enlarged (weighing 200 to 300 g.), and 
resembles in size and color the fat liver of geese. The structure of 
the liver tissue becomes partly obliterated, in consequence of the 
filling of the interacinous tissue with leucocytes. 

Judgment. — The sanitary judgment of leukemia is closely con- 
nected with the question of its origin. Its origin, however, is still 
quite unknown. There is a tendency to consider leukemia as an 
infectious disease, but without a convincing proof of this belief.* 

Since leukemia also occurs in man, it may be desirable, until 
further results are obtained from the investigation of the etiology 
of this disease, to exercise caution in rendering judgment, and to 



*Pawlowsky maintains that he has succeeded in demonstrating bacilli 3 to 4 J~l 
long, in the blood of three leukemic patients. He considers these bacilli to be charac- 
terized by the glistening oval spores in the cell body. This announcement has not been 
further corroborated. 



LEUKEMIA 373 

exclude even those cases in which alterations of the intermuscular 
lymphatic glands and of the bone marrow are not observed. The 
last mentioned alterations render meat, under all conditions, highly 
unfit for food. 

Otherwise, leukemia does not assume any great importance in 
meat inspection on account of its rare occurrence among food 
animals. 

Pseudo-leukemia. — In a discussion of the diseases of the lymph- 
atic glands, mention has already been made of the difference between 
leukemia and the disease described by Cohnheim as pseudo- 
leukemia. Pseudo-leukemia occurs more frequently in food 
. animals than true leukemia, and is quite often observed in cattle 
and hogs. It may occur with the same alterations of the spleen, 
bone marrow and lymphatic glands as are associated with leukemia; 
the difference consists merely in the fact that in pseudo-leukemia a 
disturbance of the numeric ratio between the white and red blood 
corpuscles does not occur. 

Judgment. — According to the investigation of Askanacy and 
"Watzold, which were corroborated by Brentano and Tangl, certain 
cases of pseudo-leukemia appeared to be of a tuberculous nature. 
The demonstration of their tuberculous nature, however, can not be 
made histologically or bacteriologically, but only by inoculation 
with affected tissue. Roux and Lannois, as well as Fischer, have 
shown that occasionally Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus may produce 
a general disease of the lymphatic glands resembling pseudo- 
leukemia. Klein has found the same to be true for Streptococcus 
pyogenes. In a case of lymphatic leukemia observed by the author, 
in a horse, a bacteriological investigation showed the presence of 
Streptococcus in the enormously-enlarged lymphatic gland. An 
investigation of several cases in cattle, however, gave negative 
results. 

A certain proportion of the cases of pseudo-leukemia must, 
therefore, be judged like tuberculosis ; others like pyemia ; and still 
others like simple tumors. The sanitary procedure, however, in 
pseudo-leukemia is a simple matter, since, even in cases in which 
only simple tumor formation occurs, the meat becomes highly unfit 
ior food on account of the extensive affection of the intermuscular 
lymph glands, and it must therefore be absolutely excluded from 
the market. 



374 ANOMALIES OF THE BLOOD 



4.— Hemoglobinemia. 

Nature and Origin. — By hemoglobinemia we understand an 
accumulation of red blood coloring matter, hemoglobin, in the blood 
serum. This phenomenon occurs whenever a considerable number 
of red blood corpuscles are constantly disintegrating ; the excretion 
of the hemoglobin with the urine (hemoglobinuria) takes place 
when more than one-sixtieth of the total quantity of hemoglobin 
becomes dissolved (Ponfick). 

Hemoglobinemia or hemoglobinuria are merely symptoms. 
The primary affection is the destruction of the red blood corpuscles, 
which may be due to very different causes. Red blood corpuscles 
may become disintegrated and dissolved as a result of colds in cer- 
tain individuals (rheumatic hemoglobinuria) ; or by burns on the 
skin, or by certain poisons (for example, chloride of potash, pyro- 
gallic acid) ; or, finally, by parasites, as in Texas fever and related 
diseases of cattle and sheep. 

The judgment of hemoglobinemia must therefore vary accord- 
ing to the etiology. 

Among native domesticated animals there are two common dis- 
eases in which hemoglobinemia is a regular symptom, viz.; Black 
ischuria of the horse and so-called hematuria of cattle. 

Black Ischuria of the Horse. 

Nature. — Opinions differ concerning the nature of this disease. 
It has been considered a nephritis (Hering) ; auto-intoxication 
(Bollinger) ; as an effect of increased metabolism in the muscula- 
ture (Siedamgrotzky and Hofmeister) ; and finally, as a rheumatic 
myositis with dissolution of the coloring material of the muscles 
(Frohner). The external conditions under which the disease appears 
(quite likely in unaccustomed rest in stalls), make it probable that 
so-called black ischuria is auto-intoxication due to the products of 
metabolism. Moreover, it has been shown that the disease disap- 
pears in consequence of exercise and colds. Concerning the nature 
of the toxic products of metabolism, we have nothing but supposi- 
tions. 

Autopsy. — Upon post mortem examination we find a shellac- 
colored noncoagulating or poorly coagulating blood ; a white, pale 
color and an edematous infiltration of the musculature of the hind 
quarters. On microscopic investigation there appear, as first stated 



CHOLEMIA 375 

"by Frbhner, and later corroborated by Zschokke, a granular cloudi- 
ness, fragmentation, loss of cross-striation, and, finally, a marked 
hyaline degeneration of the fibers of affected muscles (p. 357). 

Judgment. — The Regierung president at Arnsberg, on account 
of an outbreak of meat poisoning at Altena in which a number of 
persons were affected and some workmen died as a result of eating 
the meat of a horse slaughtered for sanitary reasons, called attention 
to the dangers which may be associated, under certain conditions, 
with the consumption of such meat. In the decree it was assumed 
that the horse in question was suffering from hemoglobinemia and 
it was therefore ordered that in future the meat of horses slaugh- 
tered on account of this disease should be absolutely excluded from 
consumption by man. 

It was further stated in the decree, however, that if the horse 
in question had recovered, but still exhibited a partial paralysis in 
a mild form, and if a question had arisen regarding the slaughter of 
the animal on account of its uselessness or loss of value, that the 
danger of the transmission of the original disease was no longer 
present. Under such conditions, therefore, the use of the meat may 
be permitted, in case it is not prohibited for other reasons. With 
regard to the wording of this decree, it is to be noted that according 
to our knowledge of the nature of hemoglobinemia in horses, it is 
improbable that this disease, in and of itself, can render the meat 
injurious to health. Harmful properties may, however, appear in 
the meat, if secondary septic processes have developed in conse- 
quence of decubitus. 

For hematuria of cattle, see under " Texas Fever," p. 533. 

5. — Cholemia (Icterus). 

Natube. — In cholemia the constituents of the bile circulate in 
the blood. Cholemia appears clinically and in the carcass as a 
yellow coloration of the solid tissues (deposition of bilirubin) ; 
consequently the disease is commonly called jaundice (icterus) from 
its chief symptom. 

The cause of cholemia is a partial or total obstruction of the 
ductus choledochus (in consequence of duodenitis, bile concretions, 
and parasites — especially wandering nematodes). In this manner 
hepatogenous, or retention, icterus arises. 

The second form of icterus is known as hematogenous or 
anhepatogenous, and is caused by an excessive disintegration of red 



376 ANOMALIES OF THE BLOOD 

blood corpuscles. Hematogenous icterus accompanies certain intox- 
ications; for example, poisoning from phosphorus, as well as certain, 
infectious diseases, especially pneumonia of horses and swine 
plague. Auhepatogenous icterus may also arise in connection with 
extensive hemorrhages (hematoidin being identical with bilirubin). 
Hematogenous icterus is, therefore, a concomitant phenomenon and 
does not possess the independent significance which attaches to 
hepatogenous icterus. 

Autopsy. — In severe cases of cholemia, all the tissues are col- 
ored yellow or yellowish-green. Upon microscopic examination 
deposits of bilirubin crystals are found in the yellow colored 
tissues ; these crystals are especially abundant in the tissues of the 
liver and kidneys. Normal conditions prevail with the exception of 
the yellow color. Moreover, the complete retention of the bile may 
lead to considerable disturbance of nutrition (emaciation) ; the 
latter condition is associated with a marked yellow coloration.* 

Judgment. — Cholemia does not render the meat dangerous to 
health, but merely lessens its value. The deterioration in quality 
results from the abnormal coloration of the tissues. The utilization 
of jaundiced meat for human food depends, otherwise, upon the 
intensity of the yellow color, In moderate cases the meat is usually 
permitted to be sold without restriction. Strongly colored meat, 
however, is sold as inferior food material, under declaration ; while 
meat of an intensive greenish-yellow coloration is absolutely 
excluded from the market. 

Hertwig called attention to the fact that a decision concerning 
icteric animals should never be made until the carcass has entirely 
cooled off, for it happens quite often that animals, especially hogs, 
which exhibit a striking yellow coloration immediately after slaugh- 
ter, lose this color after becoming cold. This remarkable post 
mortem phenomenon is to be explained by the presence of a 
reducing power in the living tissues (see page 198). Incidentally ifc 
should be noted that jaundice can only be recognized with certainty 
in daylight or by electric light, and that it escapes the notice of the 
observer by gas light. 

In lupinosis, which must be considered as an intoxication, hepa- 
togenous icterus is one of the most prominent symptoms. Besides 



*With reference to the differentiation of pathological jaundice from phy- 
siological yellow coloration of the adipose tissue in certain methods of fattening, 
compare p. 245. 



UREMIA o t 7 

this, alterations of the parenchyma regularly occur (cloudy swelling 
and fatty metamorphosis of the liyer, kidneys, myocardium, and, in 
severe cases, of the musculature). 

Judgment on lupinosis should be the same as for icterus. The 
admission of the meat of animals affected with this disease to free 
or restricted sale depends upon the seriousness or intensity of the 
disease. 

6. — Uremia. 

Origin. — The accumulation of the constituents of the urine in 
TxLood may arise from defective excretion or by the resorption of 
excreted urine. The first cause is rare in food animals ; according 
to my experience it appears only in the most acute cases of bilateral 
pyelonephritis of cattle. The second method of origin of uremia is 
more frequent. A retention of the urine may arise in steers and 
wethers if the concretions become wedged in the urethra. A favorite 
location for these obstructions is, as is well known, the S-shaped 
flexure of the urethra. If the concretion is not removed by opera- 
tion, rupture of the bladder occurs, with discharge of the urine into 
the body cavity, or a necrosis- of the obstructed part of the urethra 
with subsequent urinary infiltration of the surrounding tissue. 

In cases of urinary infiltration, with gangrene, Guyon and 
Albarran found Staphylococcus pyogenes, a non-liquefying, fluorescent 
bacillus with pathogenic properties, non-pathogenic cocci, and 
Bacillus pyogenes ureal, to the last of which the discoverers attributed 
very offensive properties. 

Clinical Symptoms. — Uremic animals, even during life, appear 
to be very sick and apathetic. In acute cases uremic convulsions 
are always present. In cases where discharge of the urine into the 
body cavity or into the subcutis takes place, the expired air has the 
odor of urine. 

Autopsy. — The blood shed at the time of slaughter has a pro- 
nounced urinous odor. In the subcutaneous and intermuscular 
tissues there are everywhere considerable accumulations of a 
slightly alkaline fluid with urinous odor. More or less numerous 
and extensive hemorrhages occur in the connective tissues and 
muscles. If rupture of the bladder has occurred, a quantity of 
urine is observed in the body cavity and the peritoneum is simulta- 
neously reddened. In urinary infiltration, on the other hand, in 
the region of the urethra there is an accumulation of urine in the 



378 ANOMALIES OF THE BLOOD 

subcutaneous tissues of the pendant parts of the abdomen and 
thorax.* 

In cases where the urine is retained and a resorption of the 
undecomposed urine takes place, the carcasses possess the well- 
known urinous odor. Where, however, the resorption of decom- 
posed urine takes place, the odor is decidedly ammoniacal, in 
consequence of the decomposition of the urine into ammonia and 
carbonic acid. This decomposition, however, soon takes place, even 
in case of resorption of undecomposed urine, so that within a short 
time after slaughter no difference can be detected in the odor of the 
meat. 

As the animal body cools off, the urinous odor of the meat dis- 
appears ; the abnormal odor, however, may be made to reappear in 
its original intensity by warming a piece of meat over a flame or by 
cooking. 

Judgment. — It requires no detailed argument to show that meat 
which exhibits such a marked fundamental alteration as that of the 
uremic animals is to be absolutely excluded from the market as 
highly unfit for human food. 

Attention may, however, be called to the fact that urinary 
discharges which take place immediately before slaughter in conse- 
quence of injuries to the urinary passages, do not justify an exclu- 
sion of the meat. I have occasionally seen such trifling urinary 
discharges in the pelvic cavity of heifers which Avere accidentally 
injured during coitus immediately before slaughter. 






*In uremia of fowls an excretion of iiric acid upon the serous membranes, in the 
air sacs and in the kidneys is observed. Moreover, considerable accumulations of 
uric acid may take place in the joints and the tissues surrounding them. 



X. 

POISONING (INTOXICATIONS), EFFECT OF ODORIFIC 
DRUGS AND SO-CALLED AUTOINTOXICATION. 



1.— Poisoning: (Intoxications). 

Occurrence. — Poisoning of food animals may occur from 
various causes. Most frequently it is the result of eating poisonous 
plants along with the fodder (for example, colchicum, cicuta, equise- 
tum, lupines, buckwheat) ; or of eating other injurious fodder 
(infested, mouldy fodder, sprouting potatoes, cotton seed, beech 
nuts, ricinus, mustard cakes, etc.) ; or by the accidental eating of 
poisonous substances (lead, arsenic, phosphorus, saltpeter, kainit, 
salt in large quantities) ; and, finally, by irrational medication (tartar 
emetic, mercury, alkalies, veratrin, strychnin, carbolic acid, etc.). 
With reference to the various poisons, the text-books on toxicology 
should be consulted, since in this account poisoning will receive 
only a general discussion. 

Detection. — The detection of poisons is possible with certainty 
only when a trained investigator has opportunity to inspect the 
poisoned animals, not only after slaughter, but also while alive. 
The sudden appearance of disease, the serious disturbances in the 
realm of the central nervous system — accompanied or not by diges- 
tive symptoms — and sudden death, furnish the most important 
criteria for the recognition of poison when considered in connection 
with anamnestic data. 

Autopsy. — The post mortem findings vary. They may be : 

1. Completely negative (poisoning from simple nerve poisons, 

such as morphine, eserin, strychnin). 

2. Alterations in the alimentary tract (acid, corrosive poisons). 

3. In addition to the two above-named variations, alterations 

of the blood (hemoglobinemia) and of the solid tissues 
(icterus) may be present (blood poisons, like chloride of 
potash, chloroform and phosphorus). 

379 



380 POISONING 

The alterations in cases of poisons in groups 2 and 3 are more 
pronounced after death, while in group 1 the expert is not in a 
position to demonstrate by a simple macroscopical examination that 
poisoning has occurred. Fortunately, however, this impossibility 
does not carry with it any serious hygienic danger. 

Judgment. — Concerning the question of the sanitary judgment 
of poisoning, the experiments of Frohner and Knudsen produced 
especially instructive results. 

Frohner and Knudsen, in their important work, call attention 
to the fact that for a long time, but incorrectly, the injurious char- 
acter of the meat of poisoned animals has been considered a 
■veterinary axiom. In this connection it is necessary to distinguish 
between the possibility of a chemical demonstration of a poison in 
meat, and the possibility of this poison exercising a harmful effect. 
Por example, a steer weighing 1,000 lbs. would be poisoned with 
0.5 gm. strychnin. For a man weighing 100 lbs., on the other hand, 
the fatal dose is 5 mg. In one kg. of the meat of a steer poisoned 
with strychnin a man could find, at most, 1 mg. of the poison — a 
perfectly harmless dose. It should also be known that many wild 
races kill the game which they use for food by means of poisoned 
arrows, and, therefore, live exclusively upon the meat of poisoned 
animals.* 

Furthermore, Frohner and Knudsen call attention to the fact 
that all experiments which have been reported in the literature on 
the subject and all observations are against the assumption that the 
meat of poisoned animals possesses harmful properties. Harms, 
proved this point for nux vomica and tartarus stibiatus ; Feser for 
strychnin and eserin ; Spallanzani, Zappa and Sonnenschein for 
arsenic, t 



*Thus, for example, the Akas, a mountain race in the north of Brahmaputra, kill 
their food game by arrows which, according to an investigation by Waddell, are 
poisoned with aconitin. 

t The experiments and observations cited from the literature on the subject by 
Prohner and Knudsen concerning the harmlessness of the meat of poisoned animals- 
may be supplemented by the following : Gautier reported concerning the poisoning of 
calves with cotton-seed meal cakes. The meat of calves, which was of good appear- 
ance, was eaten without harm. Feser made a report concerning experiments with 
the meat of horses which had been killed with apomorphine (10 gm. in 250 gm. of 
•water injected directly into the veins) ; the raw meat was eaten by dogs without any 
ill effect. Likewise a subcutaneous injection of the meat serum, as well as perfectly 
fresh blood, caused no tympanites or other symptoms of disease in dogs. According 
to Peschel, a dairyman lost four cows by poisoning with colchicum. The meat of the 
animals was eaten without producing any ill effects. 



INTOXICATIONS 381. 

Frohner and Knudsen have recently reported their own experi- 
ments with strychnia and eserin. On the basis of these experiments, 
they declare that the meat of animals which have been poisoned 
with either strychnin or eserin is not harmful. 

The following abstract may be given of these experiments : 

1. Strychnin. — A wether weighing 39 kg. and a ewe weighing 24: 
kg. were poisoned with 0.05 and 0.03 gm. strychnin, respectively. 
Death took place after 20 and 19 minutes. Pieces of the muscle (750 
and 500 gm.), as well as the livers (400 and 300 gm.), were treated 
according to the method of Dragendorff. The reaction for strychnin, 
took place in all cases and a physiological experiment with white 
mice also gave positive results. Three dogs, however, weighing 15, 
17 and 18 lbs. respectively, ate 2 lbs. each of the raw meat without 
suffering any harm. The authors themselves ate h, lb. of the cooked 
meat. The meat as well as the broth had an agreeable taste, was. 
not bitter and caused no ill effects. 

2. Eserin. — A wether weighing 32 kg. received 0.5 gm. eserin 
sulphate and died after 13 minutes. Eserin could not be demon- 
strated in the musculature (1,750 gm. were used for the 
investigation) nor in the liver (500 gm.). On the other hand, an 
examination of a mixture of the heart, kidneys, luDgs and blood (in 
all, 1,000 gm.) gave a decided eserin reaction. Frohner and Knudsen 
ate ^ lb. of the cooked meat without suffering any harm, and the two 
dogs which were used in the previous experiment each ate 2 lbs. of 
raw meat without any disturbance of their general condition. 

Frohner and Knudsen call attention to the fact that especial 
significance is to be ascribed to the negative results which have 
been obtained with eserin, since eserin exercises a comparatively 
greater effect upon man and dogs than upon other mammals. More- 
over, Frohner and Knudsen have recently conducted experimental 
investigations upon poisoning by pilocarpin and veratrin. The 
plan of the experiments was the same as in previously-mentioned 
experiments. Sheep and rabbits were poisoned with fatal doses of 
pilocarpin and veratrin, and the meat of these animals was tested 
for food, partly by the experimenters and in larger quantities with 
dogs. The results obtained agree completely with previous results. 
" The meat of animals poisoned with pilocarpin and veratrin proved 
to be perfectly harmless as food for man and animals." 

In so far, therefore, as septic or pyemic processes do not 
accompany the intoxications, it may be confidently asserted, on the 



382 POISONING 

basis of experiments made with the four most poisonous alkaloids 
(strychnin, eserin, pilocarpin and veratrin), that " the medicinal 
treatment of an animal with any drug whatever does not render the 
meat dangerous for food."* Even the meat of animals which have 
died in consequence of an accidental or intentional poisoning 
possesses no harmful properties, but is simply unfit for food in the 
sense of Section X of the Pure Food Law of May 14, 1879. 

The chemical and physiological investigations of meat have 
shown that it either contains no poison (in the case of pilocarpin 
and eserin), or only traces (in the case of strychnin and veratrin). 
This phenomenon is explained by the above-mentioned fact, that 
the musculature, as well as the living tissue, decomposes the alka- 
loids which have been taken up, principally by reduction (see p. 
198). Frohner and Knudsen consider the liver as next in importance 
to the musculature in the decomposition of alkaloids, while a weaker 
reducing power attaches to the blood than to the muscles and liver. 
Excretion of the alkaloids by means of the excretory organs is to be 
considered as the second factor in the removal of the poison from 
the organism. 

Finally, Frohner and Knudsen observed that the more easily 
decomposed glucosids, as, for example, the glucosids of digitalis, 
behave in a manner similar to that of the alkaloids. The possibility 
of an injurious effect is much less in the case of mineral poisons 
than with vegetable poisons, for they exercise a slighter effect. 
Arsenic, for example, is ten times less poisonous than strychnin ; 
phosphorus, soon after its resorption, is modified into nonpoisonous 
oxidation products ; the metallic salts (lead, copper, mercury, zinc, 
.antimony, silver salts, etc.) are never resorbed except in small 
quantities, so that in the case of these substances, poisoning by 
means of the meat is out of the question. The same holds true for 
poisoning with caustic alkalies and acids, t 

According to " Mitteilungen aus der Tierarztlichen Praxis im 
Xbnigreich Preussen," fifty scabby sheep died from mercuric 
poisoning in 1880, in Koln. Only very small quantities of quick- 



* The correctness of this position has been corroborated, since the publication of 
the experiments of Frohmer and Knudsen, by a manifold experience. Thus, on the 
basis of the experiments in question, "Warncke admitted to the market the meat of 
a cow which, one hour before compulsory slaughter, had received 2 gm. morphine in 
the form of a subcutaneous injection. The tissue around the point of injection and 
the entrails were removed. The meat was eaten without any ill effects. 

f In cases of poisoning from acid, caustic substances, it should be noted that 
septic processes may develop if the action of the caustic substances is long continued. 



INTOXICATIONS 383 

silver could be demonstrated in the mutton. Ludwig made a report 
to the Society of Physicians in Vienna concerning the distribution 
of mercury in the different organs of man and animals which had 
died from corrosive sublimate poisoning. Taking 1,000 as the 
l>asal number, 225 parts were found in the kidneys, 87 in the liver, 
53 in the large intestine, 38 in the spleen, 6 in the small intestine, 1 
in the brain, and only minimal quantities in the muscles and bones. 
Albrecht reports that the meat of two cows which had drunk a 
decoction of lead ore and had died as a result, was fed to several 
dogs and cats without causing any bad effects. A dog belonging to 
Albrecht received 120 lbs. without the slightest ill effects. Accord- 
ing to Ellenberger, the blood and musculature contain very little 
lead in cases of chronic lead poisoning. The internal organs (spleen, 
kidneys and liver) contain more, but only 0.01 per cent. Laho and 
Mosselmann fed a young steer, weighing 185 kg., 50 gm. (daily) of 
«, resinous paint, § of which consisted of white lead. The steer died 
on the sixth day and a chemical investigation disclosed the presence 
in the kidneys and liver of 40 mg. lead sulphate per kilogram. 
Traces of lead were demonstrated in the brain, while in the meat 
not even a trace of the dangerous metal could be detected. The 
meat was fed to dogs during a period of several weeks and the ani- 
mals showed not the slightest disturbance in their condition. 

Abnormal Condition of Certain Organs. — Frohner and Knud- 
sen expressly assert that their experiments related only to meat 
(including the heart, liver and kidneys). The stomach and the 
intestines of poisoned animals, on the other hand, are always dan- 
gerous on account of their poisonous contents.* These facts are to 
be remembered in cases of emergency slaughter where powerful 
poisons are administered, not by the mouth, but subcutaneously, 
since these poisons are excreted through the glands of the stomach 
and intestines. Naturally, in cases of subcutaneous injection of 
•powerful drugs, the point of injection must also be considered dan- 
gerous and must be removed before the meat is admitted to the 
market. In addition to the stomach and intestines, the udder 
occupies a special position among the organs of poisoned animals, 
according to an observation of Schmidt in Crossen. 

A family of seven were attacked with acute pains and violent 
vomiting immediately after eating the udder of a cow which a few 

* According to Schultz, a whole family was made ill by eating fieldfares which 
had eaten meat poisoned with strychnin and intended for foxes. The stomach of 
these birds, as is well known, is always eaten with the other edible parts. 



384 POISONING 

days before, in the course of the last five days before slaughter, had 
received 18 gm. of veratrum album, the dose on the last day before 
slaughter being 4.5 gm. No evidence was obtained of any harmful 
property in the meat. 

According to statements of Lewin, the meat of fowls which 
have received large doses of strychnin has been shown to be dan- 
gerous. As is generally known, fowls are almost immune to 
strychnin and may therefore take large quantities of the poison. 
Lewin administered 0.02 gm. of strychnin by way of the mouth to 
fowls during a period of 14 days. After the fowls had died a dog 
was fed upon the meat. After the first meal of 125 gm. the animal 
showed symptoms of disease which developed after further feeding 
into a regular tetanus, resulting in death. It is stated that an 
investigation of the internal organs of fowls poisoned with strychnin 
showed no evidence of the poison, while a considerable quantity 
was found in the muscle meat. According to Schneider, the meat 
of geese, fowls and pigeons which had died from fatal doses of 
strychnin proved to be harmless. 

Jantzon fed the internal organs and some of the meat of a cow 
which had been slaughtered soon after receiving a subcutaneous 
injection of strychnin, to a number of small dogs (dachshund and 
terriers), without ill effects, while a hunting dog which was fed the 
meat from around the point of injection was affected with violent 
strychnin convulsions. 



2.— Effect of Odoriflc Drugs on the Meat. 

In cases of emergency slaughter the meat inspector often has 
opportunity to inspect animals the meat of which possesses an 
abnormal odor. Aside from the foul odor which meat assumes 
when processes with a disagreeable odor have developed in the body 
(sapremia and septicemia), we may observe in the place of the nor- 
mal meat odor various other odors which strongly resemble those 
of certain drugs. 

The majority of our aromatic drugs which, contrary to the rules 
of the veterinary prescription regulations, are administered to dis- 
eased food animals, transmit a very specific or somewhat modified 
odor to the meat, if they have been administered in large quantities 
and if the period between the administration of the drugs and the 
slaughtering of the animal has not been too long. To this group of 
drugs belong ether, camphor, turpentine oil, kerosene, asafetida,, 



AUTOINTOXICATION 385 

oleum carvi, anise oil, carbolic acid and chlorin preparations. Car- 
bolic acid and chlorin are, strange to say, actively absorbed by the 
boJy and retained for a long time, if the drugs are not administered 
Ly way of the mouth but inhaled along with the inspired air. 
Among such, cases have been observed which have been transported 
in recently disinfected freight cars, or have been placed in freshly- 
disinfected stalls. 

Demonstration of Abnormal Odors. — What was said concern- 
ing the more conspicuous appearance of ammonia in the meat of 
uremic animals when subjected to artificial heating (p. 378), holds 
true also for other abnormal odors of the meat of slaughtered ani- 
mals. These odors are more easily detected after warming or 
cooking the meat. 

Judgment. — In all cases in which the abnormal odor is due to 
the administration of aromatic drugs, the opinion concerning the 
utilization of meat will be determined as in cases described on 
p. 245 ff., according to the intensity of the odor. In slight cases 
the meat can be admitted to the market unhesitatingly, under 
declaration. In other cases, on the contrary, in which a foul stench 
is emitted from the meat, such meat is to be considered highly unfit, 
for food and is to be absolutely prohibited from sale. 



3.— The So-called Autointoxication. 

In the discussion of blood diseases, three affections have 
already been named, which from an etiological standpoint are to be 
considered as autointoxications, i. e., as cases of poisoning due to> 
metabolic products of the body. These diseases are cholemia,, 
uremia and the so-called black ischuria. A suitable discussion has 
been given above to these diseases. In cholemia and uremia we 
have to do with the retention or resorption of the bile and urine. 
The conditions are not so simple in black ischuria. We do not 
know what substances act in a poisonous manner in this case. 
However, the origin and course of the disease, as already mentioned, 
make it exceedingly probable that the so-called black ischuria is a 
form of poisoning due to some metabolic products of the body. 
Similar conditions are found in parturient paralysis. A special 
discussion of this disease follows. 



386 POISONING 



Parturient Paralysis. 

Ludwig Franck deserves credit for having called attention to 
the fact that the diseases which occur immediately after parturition 
and which previously had been designated by the name parturient 
paralysis, or milk fever, are really of two forms. Franck distin- 
guished a septic and a paralytic parturient fever. The two diseases 
have nothing in common, except the fact that they occur after 
parturition. Septic parturient fever is an exquisite septicemia. 
The paralytic form, on the other hand, is a marked case of poison- 
ing. This distinction is of the greatest significance for meat 
inspection and we must agree with Friedberger and Frohner when 
they propose to characterize the difference between the two diseases 
by the use of the term " parturient paresis " in the place of the less 
applicable term of "paralytic parturient fever." 

Occukeence, Course and Autopsy. — Parturient paresis occurs 
most frequently in cattle, less often in goats and hogs. It begins 
with a short stage of irritation, thereupon a paralysis of the posterior 
extremities follows, and rapidly extends to the other parts of the 
"body. The paralysis is both motor and sensory. Moreover, the 
smooth musculature (of the intestines and bladder) is paralyzed. 
Even in acute cases, however, recovery may take place with aston- 
ishing rapidity. Otherwise, death follows in consequence of cerebral 
paralysis. Gross anatomic lesions are not present. The post 
mortem finding is negative, as in the case of poisoning. The uterus 
exhibits no injuries or inflammatory symptoms ; it contains only a 
small quantity of odorless fluid. This condition is in complete 
harmony with the fact that parturient paralysis is usually associated 
with cases of easy parturition. 

It should be noted that parturient paresis appears from twenty- 
four hours to three days after birth, and that it is almost exclusively 
the well-nourished, highly-fed and well-cared-for animals which are 
attacked by the disease. 

Etiology. — Opinions concerning the cause of the above described 
phenomena vary, like those concerning black ischuria. Franck 
attempted to explain parturient paresis by cerebral congestion, with 
subsequent cerebral edema ; Harms, by the absorption of air in the 
blood vessels of the brain (aeremia). The hypothesis of Franck, as 
Schmidt-Miilheim has asserted, does not harmonize with the disease. 



AUTOINTOXICATION 387 

"The aeremia of the blood vessels of the brain, however, is an artificial 
condition which is almost always produced by removal of the cra- 
nium. The view entertained by Schmidt-Mulheim, that in this 
disease we have to do with a substance resembling an alkaloid, 
which is formed in the body of animals, is best calculated to explain 
the acute spinal and cerebral symptoms. It is doubtful, however, 
whether the hypothesis of Schmidt-Mulheim is well-founded, viz., 
that the toxic substances resembling the poisonous principles in 
cases of sausage poison, owe their origin to a peculiar decomposi- 
tion of the lochial fluid in the uterus. According to the results of 
the method of treatment recommended by Schmidt of Kolding 
(iodin infusions into the milk cisterns), it is more probable that the 
hypothetical poisonous principles are formed in the udder. 

Although we are not able to explain with certainty the origin 
of parturient paresis, it may be safely assumed that in this disease, 
as in black ischuria, we have to do with an intoxication. The poison 
may be produced by the action of bacteria ; it may be a toxin ; 
there is no evidence, however, to justify the assumption of such an 
origin. The complete integrity of the organs argues against such a 
method of development. It is more probable that parturient paresis 
is caused by leucomaines which arise in certain animals in conse- 
quence of physiological processes. Such aleucomaine, for example, 
according to the investigations of Remy, is developed in a fish 
(diodon) which lives in the Japanese Sea. The poison appears in 
the glands when these organs are in a condition of physiological 
rest. 

W. Eber considers parturient paresis, as well as black ischuria, 
to be a " toxigen disease." * He assumed that toxigen is formed in 
the reproductive organs of healthy cows, but that in such situations 
it remains toxigen, or is excreted as such. In diseased animals, 
on the contrary, he believes that we have to do with a trans- 
formation of the toxigen into an active poison in consequence of 
metabolism. 



* The general term "toxigen" or " toxigen ous substances," according to "W. 
Eber, should include all those chemical bodies which assume poisonous properties 
only in consequence of the action of the animal organism. Such a peculiar intercon- 
nection between a toxigen and the animal body is observed, for example, in iodic acid, 
iodid of soda, and iodin with iodid of soda. The intoxications caused by these sub- 
stances are distinguished by the fact that the beginning of the poisonous symptoms 
occurs after an incubation period ; the poisoned animals do not manifest any 
symptoms of disease for several hours (six to eight) after intravenous injection of 
iodid of soda. It is not until after this period that marked symptoms of poisoning 
occur. 



388 POISONING 

Judgment. — Physicians have repeatedly stated, and the state- 
ment has been again recently repeated in England, that the meat of 
animals affected with parturient paresis most be considered as a 
dangerous food material. This assumption is not well founded. In 
the first place, veterinary experience is against it. Up to the present 
time, no instance of harm in man has been observed from eating 
the meat of animals which were affected with parturient paresis. 
If parturient paresis could cause dangerous properties in the meat, 
this fact could not possibly have remained unknown, in view of the 
great frequency with which the disease occurs, for the meat of ani- 
mals affected with parturient paresis, even in countries with a regular 
meat inspection, is in the majority of cases admitted to the market, 
chiefly for the reason that gross anatomical alterations are abso- 
lutely wanting in cases of the disease in question. This practice is 
strengthened by the hypothesis of Frauck and Harms concerning 
the origin of the disease. 

Friedberger and Frohner call attention to the fact that compli- 
cations with septic parturient fever may occur in addition to simple 
cases of parturient paresis. "Indeed, cases are not rare in which we 
find the clinical symptoms of parturient paresis and the anatomical 
symptoms of a septic inflammation of the uterine mucosa." The 
meat inspector should bear this fact in mind, since meat in process 
of sepsis is to be judged quite differently from that in cases of par- 
turient paresis. The demonstration of a complication of parturient 
paresis with septic parturient fever offers, however, no difficulties, 
since in the latter case the uterus exhibits conspicuous alterations 
(septic metritis). 

Moreover, the meat of animals which have been affected with 
parturient paresis is to be considered as of inferior value for food, 
and should therefore be sold only under declaration. The inferior 
quality of the meat is apparent from the fact that it comes from 
animals subjected to compulsory slaughter, which is, as a rule, good 
evidence of imperfect bleeding; this condition is due to the fact 
that slaughter is postponed until the paralysis is complete. 

Finally, attention should be called to the fact that in earlier 
times the odor of drugs was not observed in the case of any disease 
so frequently as in parturient paresis. This fact is explained by 
the method of treating the disease, in which aromatic stimulants 
(ether, camphor, turpentine oil) played an important part. 



XI. 
ANIMAL PARASITES (INVASION DISEASES). 



The number of animal parasites which have been observed in 
food animals is unusually large. A sanitary significance, however, 
attaches only to those parasites which have their seat in organs 
which serve as food for man. For this reason, the majority of the 
numerous skin parasites are without significance for meat inspection, 
since the skin of food animals, with the exception of hogs, is, as a 
rule, not utilized as human food. 

The sanitary significance of different species of animal parasites 
varies considerably. Only a few species of animal parasites possess 
great significance ; the majority are unimportant. According to 
their importance in meat inspection, the greater number of animal 
parasites which are found in the body of food animals may be 
divided into three groups : 

1. Parasites which are not transmissible to man. 

2. Parasites which may be transmitted to man by eating meat. 

3. Parasites which are not immediately harmful, but which 
may become so after a preliminary change of host. 

As will be readily understood, the greatest interest attaches to 
those parasites which belong to the second and third groups. These 
parasites, or rather the parts of food animals which are infested by 
them, must be excluded from the market. Meat inspection must 
also take account of the parasites of group 1, since they produce in 
the organs the characters of inferior food material ; and it is, fur- 
thermore, the duty of meat inspection to destroy those parasites 
which, in a larval condition, are injurious only to domesticated 
animals. 

It would transcend the limits of a handbook of meat inspection 
if we were to go into a detailed description of all the parasites which 
are here concerned. A detailed description is justified only in the 
case of those parasites which may offer difficulties in identification. 
In the case of others, a short statement concerning their form and. 

389 



390 INVASION DISEASES 

size is sufficient for the purpose of meat inspection. With regard 
to further peculiarities of these parasites, reference should be made 
to the text-books of parasitology by Zurn, Leuckart, Braun, Railliet 
and Neumann. The anatomical alterations which are produced in 
the organs of domesticated animals infested with animal parasites 
will receive a more detailed consideration. 

1. — Parasites Which Are Not Transmissible to Man. 

Of the parasites included under this head, the following will 
receive attention : 

1. The hair follicle mite in the skin of hogs. 

2. Various endoparasitic dipterous larvae. 

3. Numerous worms which occur in the organs of food animals. 

1.— The Hair Follicle Mite of the Hog. 

The hair follicle mite (Demodex pliylloides suis), discovered by 
Csokor, is parasitic in the skin of the hog. It is from 0.2 to .25 mm. 
long and produces small swellings of the hair follicles which ordi- 
narily project only slightly beyond the surface of the skin. The 
swellings show a predilection for the snout, neck, under part of the 
breast, abdomen and flank, as well as the inner surface of the thigh. 
They are less conspicuous for their size (from that of a mustard 
seed to that of a lentil) than for their gray or yellowish color and 
sharp delimitation from the neighboring tissue. The enlarged hair 
follicles contain a soft semi-fluid material, consisting of disinte- 
grated epithelial cells and dermal oil, in which the follicle mites 
may be demonstrated in large numbers. In the case which was 
investigated by Csokor, and which led to. the discovery of the para- 
site, the swellings of the hair follicles had reached the size of a 
hazelnut and were partly transformed into ruptured abscesses. 

Judgment. — The judgment of organs infested with parasites 
which are not transmissible to man is very simple ; it will therefore 
be sufficient to discuss the matter in a general way for group 1 

(p. 417). 

2. — Dipterous Larvae. 

In cattle, the larva of the ox warble fly {GUdrus bovis) is found 
in various parts of the body. The most striking, and for meat 
inspection the most important, alterations caused by these larvae are 



, ANIMAL PAEASITES 391 

In the subcutis, in which they undergo their last development stage. 
In this position they produce swellings which may attain the size 
of a walnut. In cutting into the swollen parts, it is observed that the 
larvae, which, after attaining complete development, are 28 mm. long 
and 12-15 mm. wide, are surrounded with pus and lie in a granulat- 
ing membrane. In the vicinity of these swellings there are more or 
less extensive collateral swellings. The first larvae are observed in 
the subcutis in January. The migration from the subcutis begins 
in April. 

The oestrus larvae are observed only in cattle at pasture, and 
most frequently in young animals. In regions in which cattle 
remain at pasture day and night, as, for instance, in the marshes of 
Schleswig-Holstein, the parasites are extraordinarily abundant. 
Thus Ruser reports from the abattoir at Kiel that in that 
locality from one-fourth to one-third of all the cattle were infested 
with warble flies. 

The parasitism of oestrus larvae causes considerable loss to 
cattle raisers. In England the injury is estimated at 160,000,000 
marks per year. The chief damage lies in the deterioration of the 
skins. Furthermore, the parasites cause a decrease in the value of 
the meat, since, when they are present in large numbers, a consid- 
erable portion of the subcutis and skin muscles must be removed. 
Butchers fear especially the edematous infiltration of the subcutis, 
which in England is characterized as "licked beef," or "butchers' 
jelly," for the reason that the surface of meat which is changed in 
this manner possesses a dirty greenish-yellow appearance after 
from twelve to twenty-four hours. 

Development Stages of (Estrus Larvae. 

Formerly the view was held that the development of oestrus larvae 
took place exclusively in the subcutis. Careful investigations, which 
were begun by Hinrichsen and were carried on by several abattoir 
veterinarians, have shown that this view is incorrect. Hinrichsen, 
in his earlier work, in connection with the inspection of slaughtered 
and dead cattle in Husum, found numerous larvae scattered about in 
the adipose tissue between the dorsal vertebrae and the dura mater 
of the spinal cord. The larvae were 10 to 15 mm. long and 2 to 3 
mm. wide, clear and transparent and partly gray-green in the 
middle. The larvae lay in a uniformly edematous infiltrated swelling. 
This finding was corroborated by Home, Ruser, Goltz and Koorevaar 
in the abattoirs at Christiania, Kiel, Schwerin and Amsterdam. 
Goltz, Ruser and Koorevaar found also that the youngest stages of 



392 



INVASION DISEASES 



Fig. 98. 



the larvae occur as small hyalin structures under the mucous 
membrane of the esophagus. It was, therefore, assumed, in 
harmony with Ruser, that the larvae of the ox warble fly, after 
hutching from the eggs, penetrate into the mouth cavity and. pass 
thence into the esophagus, where their first development is under- 
gone. During the first months of the year, Ruser found the thoracic 
portion of the esophagus most thickly permeated, with the larvae 
and concluded from this fact that the larvae had left the esophagus, 
had made their way upward into the mediastinal fat tissues, and. 

had travelled, along the blood 
vessels and. nerves partly into the 
spinal canal and partly directly 
into their final situation, the 
subcutis. 

This assumption did not 
remain, uncontradicted. Thus, 
Neumann held it for certain that 
the larvae which he had oppor- 
tunity to study iii the vertebral 
canal were not those of (Estrus 
bovis. Koorevaar, however, dis- 
pelled this doubt, since he was 
able to rear the ox warble fly from 
larvae which he obtained in the 
spinal canal. Moreover, we owe 
to Koorevaar a thorough investi- 
gation concerning the migration 
of oestrus larvae in the body of 
cattle. 

Toward the end of June, 
Koorevaar found in the wall of 
tjie esophagus very small hyalin 
larvae, the smallest of which were 
scarcely 2 mm. long, and the largest 3 to 4 mm. During the 
succeeding mouths the larvae were found throughout the whole 
extent of the esophagus, from the pharynx to the cardiac end. 
They were located between the mucous membrane and the muscular 
layer. In July some of the larvae penetrated the muscular layer in 
the cervical portion of the esophagus and took up a position in the 
connective tissue surrounding it. By the middle of August, when 
numerous larvae were present in and outside of the esophagus and 
in the mediastinum, some specimens 5 mm. long were found in the 



! 




Beef esophagus with oestrus larvfe. 
the right a larva in natural size 



On 



ANIMAL PARASITES 393 

subdural fat tissue of the spinal canal. During the autumn months 
larvse varying in length from 5 to 13 mm. were still found in the 
esophagus. The majority of them, however, had already wandered 
to the spinal canal. From October until January, it was not a rare 
thing to find as many as forty larvse in the spinal canal of a single 
animal. In young cattle as many as fifty-seven larvae were found, 
which were distributed throughout the whole length of the spinal 
canal from the neck to the cauda equina, but most numerously in 
the lumbar region of the spinal cord. Frequently larvae of the same 
size were found in the esophagus and in the subdural fat tissue. 
By the end of December, Koorevaar observed a dirty yellow, brown, 
or occasionally hemorrhagic edema in the subcutis, which indicated 
the arrival of the larvse at the point of their final development. In 
the winter months, the simultaneous occurrence of oestrus larvse in 
the esophagus, in the subdural fat tissue and in the subcutis, in 
the same animal, is not rare. 

According to Koorevaar, the larvse of the ox warble flies which 
are on the wing in July, are distributed as follows : 

From Jnly to September, in the esophagus ; from September to 
January, in the spinal canal ; from January to May, in the subcutis 
and skin. 

The larvse of the later appearing flies, on the other hand, are 
distributed as follows : 

From October to December, in the esophagus ; from December 
to April, in the spinal canal ; from April to August, in the 
subcutis. 

It appears strange that in cutting up cattle the oestrus larvse 
are so seldom met with in their migration through the musculature. 
Home asserts that in the months from February to April he 
observed dirty green larval passages in the musculature on frequent 
occasions. Furthermore, Ruser reports the finding of warble 
swellings in. the musculature (longissimusdorsi). Although migrat- 
ing larvse have never yet been found in the musculature, this fact is 
to be explained by the rapidity with which oestrus larvse are able 
to wander to their resting place. Koorevaar placed eleven larvse 
and eight days later fifteen larvse under the skin of a dog. When 
the wound was opened one hour after the operation only one larva 
was still at the point of the operation ; the remaining fourteen had 
disappeared. When the dog was killed, fourteen days later, all of 
the twenty-six larvse which had been introduced were found ; five 
in the subcutis, six between the folds of the intestines free in the 



394 INVASION DISEASES 

body cavity, five in the fat tissue of the spleen and kidneys, three 
in cne psoas muscles, three in the wall of the esophagus, two 
around the trachea and two in the subdural adipose tissue. The 
parasites had, in the space of eight to fourteen days, completed these 
extensive migrations, and yet no traces were to be found either of 
the larvse or the passages through which they had made their way. 

With reference to the recognition of young larvae, Ruser has 
correctly called attention to the diagnostic value of the edema which 
accompanies the location of the larva (Fig. 98). 

The sheep bot fly {(Estrus ovis) lives parasitically in the nasal 
cavity and connected passages of the sheep, and may cause irrita- 
tion of greater or less severity (catarrh of a simple or acute form). 
The larvse, which are at first very small, develop finally to yellowish- 
brown oval structures from 22 to 28 mm. long. 

In the pharynx and stomach of the horse we find the larvse of 
Gastrophilus equi (19 mm. long) ; in the duodenum of the horse, G. 
nasalis (15 mm. long) ; in the alimentary tract of horses and cattle, 
the larvse of G. pecorum (13 mm. long) ; and, finally, in the esophagus, 
stomach and small intestines, or occasionally in the colon of the 
horse, G. hcemorrhoidalis (16 mm. long). 

3. — Worms. 

Among both groups of flat and round worms the following 
parasites are not transmissible to man : 

(a) All tapeworms of food animals, with the single exception of 
' Tcenia echinococcus of the dog. 

(6) The larval stages of all tapeworms of food animals, with the 
exception of Cysticercus bovis, C. cellulosce and Echinococcus poly- 
morphus. 

(c) All fluke worms (trematodes). 

(d) All nematodes (Ascaris, Eustrongylus, Filaria, Oxyuris> 
Strongylus, Trichocephalus and Acanthocephali), with the single 
exception of Trichina spiralis. 

In the case of the majority of these parasites, the discussion 
may be limited to the most important facts. 

(a) Tapeworms (Cestodes). 

The greatest importance attaches to Moniezia expansa, which 
causes the tapeworm disease of lambs, as well as to Drepanidot&nia 
lanceolata and D. setigera, which may cause extensive losses in geese, 






ANIMAL PARASITES 395 

and finally to Davainea tetragona, which causes epizootic outbreaks 
among young fowls. 

Moreover, in the horse we may observe Anoplocephala per/oliata 
(in the small and large intestine, up to the length of 80 mm.) ; A. 
plicata (in the small intestine, 1 m. in length), and A. mamillana (in 
the jejunum and ileum, 50 mm. in length) ; in cattle, sheep and 
goats, Moniezia expansa (4 to 5 m.* in length) ; in cattle and sheep, 
31. planissima (1 to 2 m. in length), 31. alba (60 to 250 cm. in length), 
M. benedeni (up to the length of 4 m.); in sheep only, 31. neumanni, 
as well as Thysanosoma ovilla and T. actinoides ; finally, in the dog, 
Tcenia ccenurus (in the small intestine up to the length of 40 cm.), 
T. marginata (1.5 to 3 m. in length), T.serrata (in the small intestine, 
50 to 60 cm. in length), and Dipylidium caninum (in the small intes- 
tine, 10 to 40 cm. in length). 

(b) Larval Stages of Tapeworms. 

In sheep and exceptionally in cattle we find the preliminary 
stage of Taenia ccenurus, known as Ccenurus cerebralis. It is located in 
the brain and spinal cord. The bladder worm is of a roundish or 
elongated form and of varying size, from a millet seed to that of a 
hen's egg. On the inner surface of the wall there are numerous, 
often hundreds, of scoleces. Ccenurus cerebralis causes the disease 
known as gid. 

In rabbits and hare there is also a ccenurus (C. serialis), but 
only exceptionally in the central nervous system (spinal cord) ; more 
frequently, however, in the musculature and in the body cavity. 

Cysticercus tenuicollis is a parasite which is frequently found in 
sheep, pigs and cattle. It represents the larval condition of Tcenia 
marginata of the dog. This species is most often met with in sheep 
and pigs. For example, Olt, in Stettin, found it in 132 out of 500 
sheep (26.4 per cent.), and Schwaimair, in Aschaffenburg, in 33 out 
of 2,009 pigs (1.64 per cent.). C. tenuicollis in its earliest stages is 
elongated, but later becomes rounded and varies in size according 
to its age. Vesicles are observed of the size of peas and as large as 
a man's fist, with all intermediate sizes. This larval tapeworm is 
most frequently found under the peritoneum and pleura and in the 
lateral layers as well as under the serous covering of the internal 
organs. The preferred location of this larva is the omentum, mes- 
entery and liver. The younger parasites are located on the surface 

*By some oversight in the German edition the length is stated as .5 to 60 m. 
— Translator. 



396 



INVASION DISEASES 



Fig. 99 



of these organs and cause a protuberance of the serous covering 
(Fig. 99), while the older and larger parasites are located in 
diverticula of the peritoneum and pleura. C. tenuicollis is thus in 
every instance covered by the peritoneum or pleura. When a 
section is made into the serous membrane which covers the parasite, 
the bladder worm emerges. Its chief charac- 
ters are a long, corrugated neck (Fig. 100), 
easily protruded by the slight pressure in the 
fluid of the caudal bladder, and the armed 
head. The armature consists in a double 
crown of hooks which are grouped in alternat- 
ing rows (Fig. 101), the large hooks are from 
.19 to .20 mm. in length and the small ones 
from .11 to .12 mm. Both kinds of hooks are 
slender and furnished with a strongly bent point (Fig. 102). 
According to Schwarz, the protuberance (basal process) of the 
small hooks of this species is frequently so decidedly bifurcated 
as to appear like a thumb nut when seen from in front. The 
number of the hooks in C tenuicollis is from 32 to 40. 




Young Cysticercus ten 

uicoliis in situ 

(after Leuckart). 



Fig. 100. 



Fig. 101. 




\ 



#\ 







Cysticercus tenuicollis with 
artificially protruded scolex. 



Circle of hooks from Cysticercus tenuieolis. 
From a photograph. X 45 diameters. 



In rare cases, C. tenuicollis is found also in the parenchyma of 
the internal organs, especially in the liver. In this situation, 
however, the parasite, presumably in consequence of the pressure 
of the surrounding substance of the liver, never reaches a large size. 
At the most we find intact specimens of the size of a pea. Other- 
wise it is a normal condition that the larvae are disintegrated in the 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



397 



Interior of the liver during their early developmental stages in 
consequence of caseation and calcification, so that only small casefied 
or calcified tubercles remain. 

Finally, mention should be made of the alterations which C. 
tenuicollis may produce in young animals. The parasite develops 
very rapidly. After twenty-six to twenty-eight days the head is 
observed, and after thirty-five to thirty-eight days the beginning of 
the hooks and suctorial apparatus, j It is not strange, therefore, that 
bladder worms may be found in very young animals. Calves, lambs 
and young pigs, which by any chance have had opportunity to take 
up the larva of T. marginata, show quite considerable alterations, 



Pig. 103. 



Fig. 102. 





Large and small hooks from C. tenui- 
collis. From a photograph. X 275 
times. The small hook shows cleavage 
of the basal process. 




■■■PI 
Calf liver with wandering C. tenuicollis. 



especially in the liver. The liver exhibits long, coiled passages 
which are filled with larvae and detritus of the liver cells, and which 
are at first dark-red, but later of a brownish or greenish color (Fig. 
103). In the expanded end of the passages we may regularly 
discover the intact or degenerated parasites. More rarely such 
passages are found in the lungs. It is undoubtedly the soft con- 
sistency of the liver tissue of young, animals which is favorable to 
the migration of the larval parasites. 

C. tenuicollis, as a rule, is a harmless parasite. It is only when 
it occurs in large numbers that it may cause death in young animals,. 



398 INVASION DISEASES 

with symptoms of peritonitis or pleuritis. Such cases occur now 
and then in young pigs. 

Diffekenttal Diagnosis. — The immature developmental forms 
of G. tenuicollis may be confused with those species which are injuri- 
ous to health (C. bovis and C. cellulosce). It is distinguished, 
however, from both of these species by its location (in the subserous 
tissue and internal organs), and by the strong development of its 
neck. When examined under a microscope, the hooks furnish 
important diagnostic characters. The beef cysticercus is without 
hooks, while that of the hog is armed, but possesses fewer and 
more compressed hooks (see p. 443). 

In casefied and calcified C. tenuicollis a confusion with tubercu- 
losis is possible. For distinguishing between the two, the condition 
of the corresponding lymph glands is important. In cases of casefied 
parasites these glands are intact, while, when tuberculosis is present, 
they are specifically altered (see p. 344), Moreover, in the caseated 
material which results from the degeneration of C. tenuicollis, hooks 
and lime corpuscles may be seen by the aid of the microscope (Figs. 
101 and 125). 

In the hare, the larval stage of Taenia serrata, C. pisiformis, 
causes alterations similar to those produced by C. tenuicollis in 
domesticated animals. C. pisiformis, however, quite frequently 
undergoes a caseous degeneration, not only in the interior, but also 
noon the surface of the internal organs. The cysticercus disease 
of rabbits may appear in an epizootic form and may give rise to 
confusion with tuberculosis, in consequence of the caseation of the 
parasites. Incidentally it should be noted that hunters wrongly 
called the alteration in question a syphilitic process, ora" venereal 
disease of the hare." 

In bony fishes, according to Guinard, Tetrarliynchus larvae are 
frequently observed, which may develop further in the alimentary 
tract of dog fish, rays and sharks. Guinard made a study of cod 
fish meat which was thoroughly infested with small cysts and 
resembled measly pork. Tetrarliynchus larvae 3.5 mm. long and 
1.5 mm. wide were found in the cysts. 

(c) Flukes (Treinatodes). 

For the purposes of meat inspection the most important flukes 
are the liver flukes (Distornum hepaticum and D. lanceolatum). 
Ampliistomum conicum may also be mentioned as a less important 
member of the grou|> of flukes. The latter parasite (Fig. 104) is 



ANIMAL PAKASITES 



399 






from 4 to 12 mm. long, 1 to 3 mm. wide, and usually of a red color. 
It is found in the paunch of ruminants and is usually a harmless 
parasite. In Germany the parasite is ordinarily rare, while in hot 
climates, on the other hand, it is very abundant. According to 
Janson, it is seen in Japanese cattle in such large numbers that the 
mucous lining of the paunch appears to be plastered over with 
the parasites. 

Distomum Hepaticum. 

Morphology and Occurrence. — The large fluke, D. hepaticum, 
is a leaf-shaped worm with a conical anterior end and a flattened 

Pig. 105. 



Fig. 104. 




Amphistomum conicum 
in natural size. 




Distomum hepaticum. X 2 times. 



posterior portion (Fig. 105). It is from 16 to 40 mm. long and 6 to 
12 mm. wide. The presence of scale-like spines upon the integu- 
ment is of special importance in explaining the alterations which 
D. hepaticwn may cause. The location of this fluke is in the gall 
ducts of cattle, sheep, goats and hogs. Occasionally it is also found 
in the horse (Sauer). Cattle and sheep are most frequently 
parasitized by this worm. The majority of cattle contain liver 
flukes or show evidence of their presence, and Schaper asserts that 
in the slaughterhouse at Munich he found no sheep liver which was 
free from flukes. Leuckart found similar conditions in certain 
regions of Holstein. 



400 INVASION DISEASES 

Wandering Fitches. — The liver fluke is found quite often in the 
lungs as well as in the liver. They are carried thither in the circu- 
lation, and are surrounded by a membrane which is at first of 
connective tissue, later becomes cartilaginous, and finally incrusted. 
They lie in a cloudy, often bloody, dark-brown fluid. The fluke 
tubercles in the lungs may attain the size of a chestnut. The 
parasites in the lungs, however, commonly remain in a poor condi- 
tion. Morot found encysted liver flukes in the lungs of 4 per cent, 
of the cattle which were inspected by him during one half year. 
Wandering liver flukes may also become located in the retropleural 
and retroperitoneal tissue, in the spleen, subcutis, skeletal muscula- 
ture and cardiac chambers, as well as in the lungs. 

Pathogenic Importance and Diagnosis. — The symptoms which 
are produced by this parasite vary exceedingly. When but few are 
present, they usually produce no noticeable disturbance. In cases 
of excessive invasion, however, a catarrh of the bile ducts appears, 
and also an inflammation of the walls of the bile ducts, which may 
result in a thickening and finally a calcification of the latter. We 
may observe upon the gastric surface of the liver that the superfi- 
ficial, larger bile ducts are changed in form and become prominent, 
firm strands or stiff tubes leading to the gall bladder. By making 
a suitable section under the lobus spigelii, or near the quadrate 
lobe, and in the middle of the left lobe, the deeper-lying bile ducts 
may be exposed and will be found to be modified in the same way. 
The tissue of the liver may remain unchanged in spite of excessive 
infestation of the larger bile ducts. This must indeed be considered 
as the usual occurrence. Only exceptionally is the liver tissue itself 
involved in the disease and then in the form of a proliferation of the 
connective tissue extending from the adventitia of the bile ducts. 
This process usually involves the destruction of the liver tissue 
and leads to an increase in the volume of the organ. At the 
same time the liver loses its reddish-brown color and becomes 
gray. Moreover, its consistency becomes firmer, so that it cannot 
be readily penetrated with the finger (hypertrophic cirrhosis of the 
liver). 

Schaper called attention to the fact that freshly introduced 
flukes may be found in the peripheral parts of the liver, since they 
penetrate into the smallest bile ducts by means of their strong, 
pointed head and their coating of spines, which prevents them from 
going backwards. Attention should be given to this point in 
making an inspection. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 401 

The tendency of liver flukes to penetrate into the smallest bile 
ducts, so far as this is possible, is of interest in another regard. It 
may occur that liver flukes penetrate the thin- walled bile ducts and 
give rise to hemorrhages of the liver (see p. 294). The flukes which, 
produce such hemorrhages are, as a rule, undeveloped and at most 
1 cm. long. Occasionally it happens, but these cases are rare, that 
a fluke perforates even the liver capsule. In this way so-called 
biliary peritonitis may be produced (p. 287). The remains of the 
liver hemorrhages caused by the wandering of the flukes outside of 
the bile ducts may exhibit several forms. At first the resorption of 
the blood takes place and this leads to a diminution in the size of 
the liver. Later, however, an active regeneration of the liver cells 
appears to take place, so that only slight defects and comparatively 
few scars are to be observed. Now and then it is noticed that dis- 
tomatous liver hemorrhages may be connected with a multiple 
hepatitis with abscess, which is due to the fact that the parasites, 
in penetrating into the tissue, carried with them putrefactive 
bacteria. 

Peculiarities op Distomatosis in Different Domesticated 
Animals. — In the first place, it should be observed that the majority 
of cattle are infested with the liver fluke. It appears that only such 
cattle as never are allowed upon pasture are protected from infesta- 
tion ; for, as a rule, only quite young cattle and bulls which are, for 
the most part, kept in stalls, show livers which are free from the; 
flukes. It is remarkable that even the presence of a large number 
of liver flukes does not ordinarily cause any disturbance in the 
nutrition of cattle. Marked thickenings of the bile ducts are 
observed, so that the form of a medusa's head may appear upon the, 
gastric surface of the liveiv, even in well-nourished animals. Even, 
in connection with cirrhosis of the liver, an injurious effect of liver- 
flukes upon the health of cattle can not usually be demonstrated. 
So long as a portion of the liver of the size of a double fist is still 
unaffected, the nutritive condition of infested animals may still be 
comparatively good. The uninjured portions of the liver are usually 
enlarged later, like a tumor. The author has never observed 
hydremic cachexia in slaughtered animals in consequence of disto- 
matosis, even in the youngest animals. The most marked effects 
of distomatous cirrhosis of the liver are shown in an emaciation of 
the affected animals. 

The conditions are quite different in sheep. In these animals 
it is a well known fact, which has been substantiated by investiga- 



402 INVASION DISEASES 

tions in abattoirs, that extensive invasions of the liver fluke cause 
serious disturbances in the nutrition, acute anemia and finally 
hydremic cachexia. This occurs, not only in occasional individuals, 
but even in whole herds (liver fluke epidemic). The injurious effect 
which extensive invasions of liver fluke may cause in sheep is 
apparent from the fact that in Alsace-Lorraine in the year 1873 not 
less than 30 per cent, of the sheep died of liver fluke disease ; while 
in England, as reported by Leuckart, 1,000,000 sheep annually fall 
a prey to this parasite. 

In hogs the liver fluke is a rare occurrence, at least in so far as 
our native animals are concerned. Pigs which are imported from 
Hungary, Servia and Russia, however, are frequently infested with 
the parasites. Disturbances of the fattening process in hogs do not 
occur as a consequence of distomatosis. 

Distomum Lanceolatum. 

Pathogenic Importance, Morphology and Occurrence. — D. 
lanceolatum, in comparison with D. hepaticum, is a harmless parasite, 
even in sheep ; for, as a rule, it produces only insignificant local 
symptoms, rarely any of general extent. This fact is explained by 
the smaller size of the parasite. It measures only 4 to 8 mm. in 
length and 1 to 2.5 mm. in width. Its harmless nature is further 
explained by the absence of a coat of spines. D. lanceolatum is 
parasitic in sheep and cattle, less often in goats and hogs. 
It is not, however, so generally distributed as D. hepaticum. Its 
appearance is rather restricted to certain regions, as, for example, 
southern Germany and Thiiringeii. According to Tempel, the 
sheep slaughtered in Chemnitz are on an average infested to the 
extent of 90 per cent, with fluke worms. Of these cases of infes- 
tation, 75 per cent, are due to D. hepaticum, and 25 per cent, to 
D. lanceolatum. 

Diagnosis. — The presence even of numerous D. lanceolatum may 
not be observed by the inspector for the reason that the liver tissue 
remains wholly unchanged and the bile ducts are only slightly 
affected. Only by the regular practice of cutting open the larger 
bile ducts and by producing lateral pressure upon them may these 
fluke worms be brought to notice, for, in spite of its small size, 
D. lanceolatum is quite conspicuous on the cut surface of the bile 
duct on account of its partial black or brown coloring (the color of 
the ripe eggs in the unusually well-developed uterus, Fig. 106). 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



403 



Fig. 106. 



From the important work of Schaper on " The Fluke "Worm 
Diseases of Domesticated Animals," from which citations have 
already been made, the following interesting details are drawn : 

Distomes are pure entozoa. They cannot live in the adult con- 
dition outside the body of their definite host. Their embryonic 
stages are passed, on the other hand, partly in a free condition and 
partly in smaller host animals of the group of mollusks, mostly 
water snails of the genus Limncea (Leuckart). From these situations 
they make their way into the definite host and are there developed 
into sexually mature parasites. D. Jiepaticum 
and D. lanceolatum occur in rare instances even 
in man. Man is infected, however, not by 
eating distomatous livers, but, as is apparent 
from the biology of the parasites, in the same 
way as are sheep and cattle. In contrast with 
D. hepaticum, which regularly causes a glandu- 
lar hyperplasia of the mucous membrane of the 
bile ducts, D. lanceolatum, even in large num- 
bers, does not produce any serious alterations 
in the liver. The pathological changes which 
are produced by D. lanceolatum are restricted 
almost entirely to catarrh of the bile ducts. 

Icterus is a rare occurrence in distomatosis, 
for the reason that the parasitism of distomes 
rarely leads to a complete obstruction of the 
bile -ducts. On the other hand, the bile ducts 
become a " cloacal system," in which the waste 
products of the liver, together with the meta- 
bolic products of the parasites, are found. A 
diminution in the number of blood corpuscles 
and in the amount of hemoglobin is usually 
observed in the blood (see p. 368). The chief 

cause of the anemic condition is persistent or repeated hemorrhage. 
" The fluke worm epizootic is to be considered as an especially 
malignant form of the fluke worm disease, which, by the accidental 
concurrence of several pathogenic factors, may be characterized by 
serious secondary phenomena and by a rapid course." 




a 

Distomum lanceolatum 

a, X 10 times; 

b, natural size. 



Development of Distomes. — For rendering a legal judgment con- 
cerning distomes, the statement of Leuckart is of importance, 
namely, that the development of the young distomes to maturity 
requires about three weeks. According to Lutz, specimens of D. 



404 INVASION DISEASES 

hepaticum eight to nine days of age were 1 to 2 mm. long ; twenty- 
seven to thirty-one days of age, 3 to 8 mm. long; thirty-two clays of 
age, 10 to 15 mm. long ; and forty-four days of age, 20 mm. long. 
Xiutz obtained these figures from distomes which he had reared in 
guinea-pigs. 

Judgment on Liveks Infested with Flukes. — It has been 
shown by feeding experiments that feeding distomatous livers 
to susceptible animals does not bring about a development of the 
liver fluke as a result. These negative results from feeding experi- 
ments are sufficiently explained by the biology of the parasites. 
The embryos (miracidia) which hatch from the eggs must develop 
in small snails and in the water into sporocysts, redise and cercarise 
before they can develop further in the body of their definite host. 
There can, therefore, be no doubt as to the harmlessness of flake- 
infested livers. Therefore, the greatest leniency may be observed 
in dealing with these livers. It should be remembered that the 
occurrence of liver flukes in the liver of sheep and cattle is to be 
considered an almost normal condition. The presence of these 
parasites in the liver of sheep and cattle cannot be characterized in 
itself as an important defect, so much the less so since in cases of 
slight invasion it is possible to remove the parasitized portions by 
careful dissection of the large, medium sized and small bile ducts. 
Distomatosis is to be considered as an important defect, giving a 
right of partial or complete exclusion of the affected organ from the 
market, when all of the bile ducts, including the small ones, are 
filled with distomes so that a separation of the bile ducts is impos- 
sible. The same condition holds true in extensive cirrhosis — in a 
partial cirrhosis restricted to one portion of the liver, only the 
affected part of the liver needs to be excluded from the market — and 
finally in suppurative inflammation of the liver tissue in consequence 
of the penetration of flukes into it. Livers which show hemorrhages 
from distomes are to be considered as of inferior value in the sense 
of the food law, but may, however, be admitted to the market without 
compulsory declaration, since the abnormal condition is apparent of 
itself. 

Muscle Distomes. — In the musculature of the hog, Leunis dis- 
covered a small undeveloped Agamodistomurn. This discovery 
was later corroborated by other investigators. Thus in inspection 
for trichinse in Berlin these peculiar parasites were found in several 
cases. They have no importance, however, since, as a rule, they 



ANIMAL PAEASITES 



405 



Fig. 107. 



occur only iu isolated examples and only in the rarest instances. 
According to Duncker, the muscle distome is an extremely delicate, 
thin structure of gray color and of about the size and form of a 
-trichina capsule (Fig. 107). The favorite location of this worm 
appears to be in the muscles of the diaphragm and larynx. The 
muscle distomes lie between the muscle fibers. They become active 
when slightly warmed. This is important 
in diagnosis for the reason that the para- 
sites at rest show a certain resemblance 
to Sarcosporidia. Moreover, Duncker pro- 
poses the following method of inspection : 
" In order to inspect meat for distomes, 
the smallest possible transverse sections 
should be taken from the bundles of 
muscle fibers, after which thev should be 
placed upon a slide with plenty of water 
and covered loosely with the cover glass. 
Then the water is studied for the purpose 
of observing whether it contains any of 
the worms. If the worms are not found 
in it, attention should be directed to de- 
termining whether the amorphous gray 
structures resembling psorosperms and 
lying between the muscle fibers, exhibit 
worm-like movements. If these are ob- 
served the crescent-shaped white shining 
gastric membranes will be seen in their 
interior. They appear more conspicu- 
ously if slight pressure is exerted on the cover glass, with move- 
ments back and forth. 




Muscle distome of the hog 
(Leuckart). 
X 80 times. 



Distomes in Foreign Animals — In Sicily, Bilharzia crassa is found 
in the abdominal veins of cattle ; in America, Dlstomum magnum in 
the liver of cattle ; in America and Japan, Mesogonimus Westermanni 
in the lungs of hogs ; and in Japan, Distomum pancreaticum in the 
pancreas of cattle. 

(d) Round Worms (Nemathelminthes). 



The round worms are divided into two large groups, the thread 
worms or nematodes, and Acanthocephali, of which the only repre- 
sentative is the giant Echinorynchus of the hog. 



406 



INVASION DISEASES 



Fig. 108. 



Echinorynclius gigas (male, 6.5 to 9.1 cm. in length ; female, 31.2 
to 41.6 cm., Fig. 108) is distinguished by the fact that it possesses 
a conical beak furnished with horny barbed hooks in several rows 
upon the anterior end of the body. It lives in the small intestine 
of the hog and causes there a limited area of inflammation which, 
on account of its yellow color, may be confounded with tuberculous 

patches. In exceptional cases it has been 
observed that the parasite bored through 
the mucous membraue of the intestine 
and gave rise to peritonitis. 

The nematodes, accor cling to Schnei- 
der, are to be divided into three groups : 

(1) Polymyaria (Ascaris, Eustrongylus, 
Ftlaria); (2) Me ro my aria (Oxyuris, Stron- 
gylus) ; (3) Holomyaria (Anguillula, Tri- 
china spiralis, Trichoce-plialus). 

Of the large number of nematodes in 
domestic animals there is only one sub- 
division, viz., that of the palisade worms 
(Strongylidse), which deserves any detailed 
consideration in this connection. With 
regard to the others, a short statement of 
their name, position and size must suffice, 
on account of their slight sanitary import- 
ance. 

The Ascaridae (Ascaris megalocep7iala y 
in the horse ; A. lumbricoides in cattle 
and hogs) live in the intestine and produce 
only exceptionally, in cases of excessive 
infestation, a disease of the affected ani- 
mals. Isolated specimens may be occa- 
sionally found in the common bile duct 
and may cause icterus by retention of the 
bile. Such cases are not rare in hogs. 
Judgment of the meat should be the same 
as in icterus. Morot, Laubion, Leibenger, 
have, moreover, observed that the meat of 
calves which contain numerous ascarids in the intestines may have 
an acid odor and taste. The odor does not disappear even when 
the meat is preserved for several days. In such cas.es the meat is 
to be considered as of inferior value and is to be sold upon the 
ireibank if the abnormal odor becomes conspicuous in a boiling test. 




Echinorhynchus gigas on the 

small intestine of a hog. 

Natural size. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 407 

In fowls, diseased areas of considerable size are observed in 
consequence of the presence of an abundance of ascarids (Heterakis 
vesicularis, H. infiexa, H. maculosa). In the musculature of codfish, 
Ascaris capsularis is found as an encapsuled parasite, -varying in 
length from 2 to 5 cm. In the stomach of Hungarian and Russian 
hogs a nematode occurs which Fedtschenko named Gnathostomum 
hispidum. This author found the parasites in the stomach of a 
Turkestan wild hog and a Hungarian domestic hog, while Osokov 
found it in hogs slaughtered in Vienna ; Strbse in Bakonyi hogs and 
Collin in the fat tissue of cattle. According to Csokor, the parasite 
may cause a stomach worm disease of hogs. By means of its bristle - 
bearing head it may bore into the serous coat of the stomach wall 
and cause a considerable swelling of the mucous membrane of the 
stomach. The Vienna butchers have long known the parasite under 
the name " three-colored worm." According to Stiose, the male is 15 
mm. and the female 22 to 25 mm. long. The parasite is from 1.18 to 
1.38 mm. thick in the male and 1.78 to 1.85 mm. in the female. 

Moreover, attention should be called to the giant palisade 
worm (Eustrongylus gigas) in the renal pelvis of the dog, horse and 
domestic ox. 

Of the filarise (thread worms in the narrower sense), the follow- 
ing are worthy of mention : F. microstoma and F. megastoma in the 
stomach of the horse ; F. hemorrhagica in the subcutis and in the 
intermuscular tissue of the horse ; F. strongylina in the stomach of 
the hog ; F. scutata in the esophagus of cattle and sheep, 
and perhaps also under the epithelium of the tongue and in ths 
mucous membrane and esophagus of hogs (Korzil) ; and F. immitis 
in the venous system of the dog. 

In geese and ducks, Dispharagus uncinatus may be parasitic in 
tubercles in the esophagus and may cause a so-called filaria disease 
of fowls. In the tubercles, we find younger and older parasites from 
3 to 18 mm. in length. Rabieaux observed an epidemic among 
fowls which was caused by Filaria pectinifera (male, 5 to 6 mm.; 
female, 9 to 10 mm. in length). This parasite was located in the 
gizzard of fowls. Moreover, Syngamus trachealis may produce 
epizootic losses among fowls. The parasites are located, the male 
and female united, in the trachea and in the esophagus. The males 
are 2 to 6 mm. in length and the females 5 to 22 mm. and from .2 
to 1.1 wide. The undeveloped worms which have not yet been 
differentiated into sexes may be found in the air sacs and the 
bronchi. 



408 INVASION DISEASES 



Strongylidae. 



The Strongylidae or palisade worms are round, rarely thread- 
like or hair-like worms of varying size. Their course of develop- 
ment, which, aside from the fact that the Strongylidae of domesti- 
cated animals have not been found in man, with one exception, 
presents considerable of interest, is of such a nature that the 
possibility of transmission of the worms, by eating organs which are 
infested with them, is absolutely excluded. The embryos pass a 
free worm stage (rhabditis form) outside of the animal body, and 
are taken up by susceptible animals with water or moist plants. 

Among the palisade worms of less sanitary importance, mention, 
may be made of S. armatus in the large intestine and cecum and in 
aneurisms of the abdominal blood vessels, especially of the anterior 

Fig. 109. 

^;-?',;Ai-'A ■:.■■,■■'■■ V .'-■.■ "■.■*>v ; V : . '/-; M ■■■■■ ;■■' •■('} -Yi'*-V : i 

*■■:-■ ■-■■ : :--.©"tfy"- s ... ■ 0ry0.© - ■■■ -■ ■■•: 
•,.,-. 0..- ,£) : •;-© qX- ■■ ■ ^Q ••"'-©"•'■' A -' ' 




Fourth stomach of beef infested with Strongylus convolutus. 

mesenteric artery of the horse ; S. hypostomus, in the stomach of 
sheep and goats ; S. cernuus, in the alimentary tract of sheep ; S. 
radiatus and ventricosus, in the small intestines of cattle ; S. dentatus, 
in the large intestine of hogs ; S. inflatus, in the large intestine of 
cattle ; S. venulosus, in the intestines of goats ; and, finally, S. fili- 
collls, in the duodenum of sheep and goats. 

Greater importance attaches to those Strongylidae which may 
disturb the general condition and the nutrition of food animals or 
may produce serious alterations in the organs which are utilized as 
human food. To this group belong the palisade worms of the 
stomach and lungs. 

Palisade Worms of the Stomach, 

In the fourth stomach of sheep and goats, Strongylus contortus 
lives parasitically (male, 13 to 15 mm.; female, 20 to 25 mm. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 409 

long). The parasite obtains its nourishment from the blood of the 
host, and in young animals may produce emaciation and hydremic 
cachexia (stomach worm disease) in cases of excessive invasion. 

In the fourth stomach of cattle, the author found 8. convolulus 
(male, 3 to 9 mm.; female, 4 to 12 mm. long) (Fig. 110). The female 
is characterized by the possession of a bell-shaped duplicative of 
the skiu over the vulva and may thus be distinguished from similar 
Strongylidse. 8. convolulus is a very frequent parasite in cattle. In 
the abattoir at Berlin, it was found in 90 per cent, of all cattle which 
were slaughtered, including all cases in which isolated examples 
occurred. The coiled worm lies under the epithelium of the mucous 
membrane of the stomach and produces in that location small pro- 
jections about the size of lentils provided with a central opening 
(Fig. 109). According to the observations of the author, 8. convolutus, 
in cases of excessive invasion of young cattle, may produce a con- 
siderable diminution of the digestive surface of the stomach and 

Fig. 110. 




Strongylns convolutus, female on the left, male on the right, X l'O times. 

thereby cause emaciation or dropsical symptoms in unfavorable 
cases. According to the accounts of Smith and Stiles, the latter of 
whom proposes the name 8. ostertagi for the parasite, since 8. 
convolutus was already preoccupied for another parasite, the nema- 
tode in question is very common in North America. Furthermore, 
McFadyean found 8. convolutus in young cattle which had become 
emaciated and anemic with symptoms of diarrhea. After death, or 
after the slaughter of the animals, an inflammation of the mucous 
membrane of the fourth stomach was found, and in such locations 
8. convolutus was found not infrequently associated with 8. 
retortwformis. 

According to Stodter, in addition to 8. contortus and 8. convolutus 
five ot^er species of Sfcrongylidse which have the power of producing 
serious disease, are found in the fourth stomach of domesticated 
ruminants. These species are 8. curticei (male, 6 to 8 mm.; female, 
10 to 13 mm. long), in cattle and sheep ; 8. oncophorus (male, 7 to 9 



410 INVASION DISEASES 

mm.; female, 9 to 12 mm. long), in cattle ; S. harkeri (male, 8 to 9 
mm.; female, 15 to 16 mm. long), in cattle; S. retortceformis (male, 
3 to 7 mm.; female, 3 to 9 mm. long), in cattle, sheep, goats and also 
in the fallow deer, hare and rabbits ; and S.filicollis (male, 8 to 15 
mm.; female, 16 to 24 mm. long), in sheep. 

Strbse found Ancliylostomum longemucronatum in the small 
intestine of a hog which was slaughtered on account of disturbances 
in nutrition, and on account of the protuberance (thickening) which 
he found in the wall of the intestine was inclined to consider the 
parasite as responsible for the nutritive disturbances in the host. 

In hare and wild rabbits, S. strigosus and S. retortceformis 
may, according to Railliet, occur in the stomach and intestines and 
may produce serious symptoms of disease. 

The Palisade Worms of the Lungs. 

To the palisade worms of the lungs belong 8. micrurus in cattle, 
roebuck and fallow deer* ; S.filaria, S. capillaris and S. commutatus 
in sheep and goats, as well as S. 'paradoxus in hogs. These palisade 
worms, after being introduced into the host, become located in the 
smaller and minute bronchi and alveoli, and by means of the irrita- 
tion which is exercised by them, they may cause a bronchitis or 
bronchiolitis. The embryos of the palisade worms, which become 
mature in the bronchi and reproduce oviparously or viviparously, 
penetrate into the lung tissue and thus cause a lobular or even a 
diffuse broncho-pneumonia (compare p. 325). Broncho-pneumonia 
may lead to the death of the infected animals. When recovery 
begins, the embryos wander back into the bronchi and from here 
pass either directly or by way of the alimentary canal, to the outside 
world. According to Miiller, the embryos of the palisade worms 
usually lie nearer the trachea and larynx as they become larger in 
size. The parent animals are disintegrated in the lungs. They may 
become encysted and casefied or calcined inside of the connective 
tissue capsule. 

Strongylus micrurus is viviparous. The male is about 30 to 
40 mm., the female, 40 to 80 mm. long. The females are especially 
conspicuous on account of their milk-white, oily appearance. Their 
location is in the bronchi, preferably those at the base of the lungs. 
S. micrurus is in general a rare parasite in cattle. Only in certain 



* Miiller is of the opinion that the fallow deer is the common host of S. micrurus, 
while cattle are only exceptionally infested. 



. ANIMAL PARASITES 411 

regions — for example, in the marshy districts of Oldenburg and in the 
lowlands of the Rhine — does it occur abundantly in wet seasons. 

In the case of slight invasion we observe in the superficial 
parts of the lungs which are infested with these parasites, white 
lobuli with a sheen like that of mother-of-pearl, which do not 
-collapse and which feel firmer than the normal tissue (Fig. 113). 
In making a section into these places, the parasites are found in the 
smaller bronchi, which, as a rule, are pathologically enlarged. The 
parasites are surrounded by a catarrhal secretion. The author has 
frequently observed, in the lungs of cattle, dead Strongylidse which 
which were enclosed in greenish-colored tubercles. 

In cases of excessive invasion in cattle, roebuck and fallow 
deer, acute broncho-pneumonia may develop with fatal results. In 
animals which die in consequence of acute pneumonia we frequently 
find, as was stated by Kitt, only a few developed parasites in the 
trachea, while large numbers of them are to be demonstrated in 
microscopical preparations from the inflamed lung tissue. 

According to Tapken, the migration of the larval worms into 
young cattle takes place in July and August. The development of 
the worm is completed within six to seven weeks. During this time 
the invasion of the worms in acute cases of lung worm disease may 
cause the death of the affected animals. Winter observed the 
appearance of the lung worm disease in the meadows of the low- 
lands along the Rhine. Healthy calves became seriously affected 
within two weeks. In animals which died within a short time of 
broncho-pneumonia, no fully developed worms were found. They 
were observed, however, in animals which were slaughtered after 
being sick for one to one and one-half months. 

Steongylus filaria, the lung thread worm (male, 25 mm. long,, 
the female as long as 84 mm.). With regard to the pathological 
anatomical relations of this worm, the same statements may be 
made as for S. micrurus. It is also apparent in verminous pneu- 
monia of sheep and goats caused by S.filaria, that only a few mature 
specimens of the worm are found in the bronchi and lung tissue of 
the diseased animals, while immense numbers of embryos and eggs 
are found. Moreover, 8. filaria is a comparatively rare parasite in 
sheep and goats. 

Steongylus capillaeis, the lung hair worm (male, 12 mm.; 
female, 20 mm. long ; very slender, almost like a cobweb, .04 to .06 
mm. thick). By microscopical examination the male is recognized 



412 



INVASION DISEASES 



by the corkscrew-like posterior end of the body and the yellowish- 
brown spicules, while the female is distinguished by the two uteri 
filled with brownish eggs covered with shells. The mature animals 
live at first in the smaller bronchi of the alveoli and produce an 
acute catarrhal or hemorrhagic bronchitis. The embryos, after 
hatching from the eggs, migrate in large numbers into the lung 
tissue and cause either a limited lobular or more extended broncho- 
pneumonia which may cause death within a short time. Commonly, 
however, the inflammatory alterations in the lungs gradually recover 
as the larvae are expelled by coughing, and the parent worms migrate 
into the lung tissue, so that only a partial capillary bronchitis 
remains, which may heal by caseation and calcification of the worms. 

Fig. 111. 





v-; gg£ - 

1 '■■■ .■■,-■,■■'■■ . ■ . 

1 

Sheep lung with lobular infiltrations and residual tubercles as a result of invasion, toy 

Strongylus capillaris. 



The tubercles enclosing S. capillaris are to be recognized by their 
yellow, grayish-red or grayish-yellow color. The worms which are 
expelled by coughing are swallowed again and may produce in their 
passage through the alimentary tract an acute catarrh of the fourth 
stomach by mechanical irritation (Schlegel). 

S. capillaris, according to Schlegel, is most abundant in goats 
and is rare in sheep, in the latter of which it is often associated 
with S. commutatus. Schlegel has also found S. capillaris, S. com- 
mutatus and S. filaria in one and the same animal. The goat, 
however, is the true host of S. capillaris. Among 200 goats 
slaughtered at the abattoir in Freiburg, Schlegel found about 30 
per cent, to be infested with S. capillaris. Ruser, in 1891, found 
the parasite in 19.5 per cent, of the sheep which were slaughtered 
at the abattoir at Kiel. In the course of the invasion of S. capillaris) 



ANIMAL PAEASITES 413 

we find in the lungs, as already stated, a tubercular, lobular infil- 
tration of a gray or grayish-yellow color. Later, however, there are 
more or less numerous tubercles, in size varying from a millet seed 
to that of a lentil or pea, and of a yellow, grayish-red, or grayish- 
yellow color (Fig. 111). The larger of these tubercles show a 
certain resemblance to the tubercles of tuberculosis, since they 
ordinarily possess a cloudy- white or yellow center. In the tubercles 
the extremely friable, dead, old worms, or aspirated eggs and 
embryos, are found (Schlegel), while the wedge-shaped, pneumonic 
infiltrations, corresponding to the bronchial branches, contain 
numerous coiled bodies of worms, as well as eggs and embryos, the 
latter frequently lying close together as if in a nest (Fig. 78). Koch 
called attention to the fact that in November he frequently found 
eggs and embryos in the lung tissue and in later months only the 
encapsuled parent animals. In this fact we have a characteristic 
difference between the lung hair-worm disease and the lung thread- 

Fm. 112. 




Strongylus capillaris from the sheep lung ; fully developed specimen. 
Natural size at the right. 

worm disease (A. Miiller). 8. capillaris always penetrates in large 
numbers into the lung tissue and remains there, finally becoming 
encapsuled and dying in the capsules. 8. filaria, on the other 
hand, turns back, in case it ever leaves the bronchi, and migrates to 
the outside world through the trachea. 

In the lungs of hare and rabbits, 8. commutatus is found as a 
parasite. This thread worm, which possesses a length of from 30 
to 70 mm. and is distinguished by its brown color (due to the dark 
pigmented intestine), is always found in greater or less numbers in 
the lung tissue and causes a limited area of inflammation. The 
inflammatory patches are of the size of a hemp seed or hazel nut 
and contain yellow, caseous material in addition to the parasites. 
8. commutatus may cause an epizootic among hare. As Schlegel 
demonstrated, S. commutatus is comparatively frequent also in sheep. 
Indeed, Schlegel characterizes S. commutatus as the most frequent 
and most injurious lung worm of sheep. According to Schlegel, the 



414 



INVASION DISEASES 



dark-brown, black, reddish-violet or reddish-brown tubercles in the 
lungs of sheep always contain 8. commutatus in an encysted 
condition. 

Strongylus paradoxus, 16 to 20 mm. long in the male and 30 to 
40 mm. long in the female, is a very common parasite, but in spite 
of its large numbers, causes only slight disturbances in its host. 



Fig. 113. 




Fig. 114. 



— a 




Hog lungs with Strongylus paradoxus. 
«, pearly parasitic foci; b, parasites in a 
section of a bronchus. 



Strongylus paradoxus in an opened 
bronchial branch. 



According to my investigations, S. paradoxus was present in about 
60 per cent, of the hogs which I inspected at the Berlin abattoir. 
According to investigations in Leipsic, Mejer estimates its occur- 
rence in native hogs at 19 per cent, and in Hungarian hogs at 52 
per cent. The invasions are rendered conspicuous from a distance 
by the spots, resembling mother of pearl, at the base of the lungs 
(Fig. 113). The bronchi which lead to these spots are enlarged and 
as a rule filled with knotted worms (Fig. 114). In about 90 per 
cent, of the cases, according to the author's observations, the 



ANIMAL PARASITES 415 

invasion is restricted to the base of the lungs ; in the remaining 10 
per cent., larger portions, sometimes even the greater part of the 
lung up to the apex, are infested with the parasites. S. paradoxus, 
as a rule, causes only a catarrhal bronchitis and bronchiectasis, but 
no pneumonia. 

Olt described the finer anatomical changes which S. paradoxus 
produces in the lungs of hogs. According to this author, the 
parasite causes a desquamative bronchitis with hyperplasia and 
ectasis of the tubular glands in the mucous membrane of the bronchi 
and hypertrophy of the bronchial mucous membrane. Moreover, 
bronchiectasis and parasitic tubercle formation occur in the bronchi 
(bronchitis and nodular chronic peri-bronchitis), as well as in the 
lung tissues, and these tubercles resemble in every particular the 
entozoic tubercles in horses' lungs (p. 328). Finally, according to 
Olt, in consequence of the parasitism of S. paradoxus, lobular 
desquamative pneumonia may arise with ultimate recovery or a 
connective tissue induration, as well as small pneumonic areas 
which become casefied with a secondary localization of vegetable 
organisms. 

Little-Known Round Worms of Food Animals. 

Leuckart described a small encapsuled round worm resem- 
bling trichina, which was found in melanotic lymph glands in a beef 
animal. The worm was asexual and 0.14 mm. long. 

The nematodes which were discovered by Drechsler in the 
small intestine of cattle have already been described in connection 
with the parasitic CEsophagostomum on page 283 ; similarly the 
round worm discovered by Natterer in the kidney fat capsule of a 
hog (Scleroslomum pinguicola), and the non-glanderous lung tubercles 
of the horse, which were shown by Olt and Grips to contain 
nematodes (pp. 309 and 328). 

In the mucous membrane of the intestines of hogs there are, 
according to Johne, small encapsuled larval worms resembling 
trichina. Johne considered them as belonging to the palisade 
worms. With reference to the Strongyliclse discovered by Olt in the 
follicles of the large intestines in hogs, compare p. 283. 

In one instance, Kitt found a nematode under the epithelium 
and between the papillae of the mucous membrane of the tongue in 
a hog. Leuckart considered that this was probably a true filaria 
(compare also the observation of Korzil, p. 407). 

Finally, Ebertz reported concerning the finding of a parasite in 
the musculatuie and lungs of a sheep. This find requires further 



416 



INVASION DISEASES 



explanation. A butcher had jokingly requested a trichina inspector, 
recently appointed to office, to inspect the meat of a young sheep 
which during life had exhibited a poor nutritive condition, muscular 
trembling and coughing. The trichina inspector removed the 
diaphragm, loin muscles and muscles of the shoulder, as well as the 
diseased portions of the lungs, and by an investigation demonstrated 
the presence of numerous parasites which closely resembled 
migrating muscle trichinae, but were distinguished from them by 
their smaller size and greater transparency. Leuckart declared 

Fig. 116. 



Fin. 




Small intestine of beef with submucous 
nematode tubercles. 



Larva of Anchylostomum oovis from 
submucous tubercles of bovine in- 
testine (after Strose), X 25 times. 



that these parasites were the larval form of a filaria or of some 
strongylid, a nematode which probably was viviparous when 
parasitic in sheep. Concerning the significance of the find, Leuckart 
stated : " I do not believe that the worm can be transmitted to man, 
although, on the other hand, I would not desire to assert the 
impossibility of such transmission." According to the view of the 
author, it is impossible to avoid suspecting that the parasites which 
were alleged to have been found in the musculature of the sheep 



ANIMAL PARASITES 417 

came from the lungs and were allowed to get into the muscles by 
improper preparation of the material for inspection. 

Sanitary Significance of Organs Infested with Parasites 
Which Are Non-Transmissible to Man. — In the unusually frequent 
occurrence of such parasites in the internal organs of food animals, 
it is required, from the standpoint of national economy — and this is 
never opposed to hygienic interests — that as many as possible of the 
parasitized organs should be put in a condition fit for consumption 
by the careful removal of the parasites. In cases of slight invasion, 
when the integrity of the parenchyma of the organ is still preserved, 
there is no reason for restricting free traffic in the organ. Only in 
case of excessive invasion are the remains of the organ to be con- 
sidered as inferior food material, after the removal of the parasite. 
On the other hand, all internal organs which show extensive inflam- 
matory changes in consequence of invasion by worms, or which 
show these changes in a degree which render removal of the worms 
impossible, are to be absolutely excluded from the market as unfit 
for food. 



2.— Parasites Which May Be Transmitted to Man by Eating 

Meat. 

There are three parasites of ordinary food animals which may 
be transmitted to man by eating meat : 

(1) Beef bladder worm (Gysticercus bovis) ; (2) pork bladder 
worm (G. cellulosce) ; (3) trichina (Trichina spiralis). 

The new measle worm of the sheep (C. ovis), which is supposed, 
to be dangerous to health and concerning which Cobbold has, 
assumed that it develops into a new tapeworm (Taenia tenella) in 
man, has been declared by the Paris Academy of Sciences to be G. 
ienuicollis. The frequent occurrence of tapeworm among the 
Arabians, who use mutton as their chief meat food, has no connection 
with this food. The Algerian tapeworm is, in fact, T. saginata, and 
comes from cattle. Leuckart considers the bladder worm found by 
Cobbold in mutton as G. cellulosai (with twenty-six hooks). This 
assumption is, according to the newer discoveries concerning G. 
cellulosai in sheep, to be considered as well founded (Olt, Bongert), 
despite the fact that Leuckart did not succeed in artificially rearing 
0. cellulosai in sheep. 



418 INVASION DISEASES 

Dangerous Fish Parasites. — In addition to cattle and hogs, 
fish also contain dangerous bladder worms, the larval stages 
(plerocerci) of Bothriocephalus lotus. 

Occurrence. — Braun discovered the larval stages of B. lotus in 
the musculature and in various internal organs of the pike (Esox 
lucius) and the eel pout {Lota vulgaris). These fish are often eaten 
incompletely roasted or only slightly smoked. According to Braun, 
the larval stage of B. latus may also be transmitted to man. by eating 
caviar from pike. The larval stages of B. lotus are in some regions 
remarkably abundant. Thus in Dorpat Braun found all pike infested. 
The same was true for the pike brought to the St. Petersburg market 
from the Finnish Meerbusen and Ladoga Lake. Eecently Braun 
has demonstrated that the pike and eel pout of Konigsberg, which 
come from Frisches Haff and Kurisches Haff, frequently contain 
the larval stages of B. lotus. Zschokke, in Geneva, found a larva of 
this worm in perch (Perca fiuviatilis), in a trout (Trutta vulgaris), in 
various species of salmon, and in the grayling (Thymallus vulgaris 
and T. lacustris). Schroder in Dorpat also found the larvae of B. 
latus in perch in twenty-eight out of eighty specimens which he 
examined (35 per cent.). 

Concerning the geographical distribution of B. latus, Braun 
states that in Europe there are two centers of distribution : French 
Switzerland and German Baltic Provinces of Kussia. From French 
Switzerland the species spread into the neighboring districts of 
France and Italy (Lombardy and Piedmont), while from the Baltic 
provinces the distribution extended eastward over Ingermannland 
towards St. Petersburg, and northerly over Finland towards Sweden, 
and also southerly toward Moscow and Poland, while another race 
of the worm extended westerly to the Prussian coasts and passed 
from here to Denmark and the coast of the North Sea. In the last 
named region B. latus is very rare, but is occasionally met with 
(Holland, Belgium, North of France, Ireland). In Japan, B. latusis 
the most frequent parasite of man. 

In Germany, B. latus is found most abundantly, according to 
Braun, close to the Baltic Sea, especially among the inhabitants of 
the Kurisches Nehrung. It is not rare, however, in Konigsberg and 
East Prussia. A special colony of them, according to Bollinger, 
has existed for fifteen years on Lake Starnberg, where the larvae of 
B. latus was undoubtedly carried by travellers. 

In the neighborhood of Bienne, Neufchatel,Murten and Geneva 
Lakes, the inhabitants were infested with B. latus to the extent of 
10 to 20 per cent., according to Zaeslin. According to Odier, one- 



ANIMAL PAEASITES 419 

fourth of all the inhabitants in Geneva were formerly infested 
with this tapeworm. According to Zschokke, the species is at 
present becoming much rarer in Geneva (1 per cent.). 

Demonstration of the Larvce of Bothriocephali. — The larvae may be 
most easily demonstrated in the intestines of the eel pout, especially 
in the pyloric appendages. They are, however, to be recognized in 
the musculature by their white color and transparent surrounding 
tissue. The larvae are .25 to .30 mm. long. The larger ones lie 
curved or rolled up in small cavities of the muscles and internal 
organs and are not surrounded by a capsule. As a rule, the larvae 
carry the head drawn in while at rest, but protrude it when warmed 
up (Fig. 117). 

Prevention. — Fish infested with the larvga of B. latus are to be 
considered as dangerous food material. The tapeworms which 
develop in men from the larval forms found in fish may cause gastric 
disturbances or nervous troubles as the result of reflex influences 
(especially disturbances of sight). Finally, the species, on account 
of its hemolytic action, may cause acute anemia, which disappears as 
soon as the worm is expelled. It is, however, impossible to exclude 
all these fish from sale, since their inspection for the presence of larval 
tapeworm is impracticable. The sanitary police must therefore 
restrict its activity to warning by means of public announcements 
against the consumption of raw pike, eel pout and pike caviar in 
infected districts. 

With reference to the transmission of B. latus to man, the 
observation of Schauinsland is of interest, to the effect that in the 
Kurisches Nehrung the internal organs of the eel pout, preferably 
the pyloric appendages, are used in a slightly dried condition as a 
proprietary remedy against stomach troubles. 

(a) Beef Bladder Worm (Cysticercus bo vis). 

Nature. — The beef measle worm is the larva of Tcenia saginata 
of man. This tapeworm is 7 to 8 m. long and possesses mature 
proglottides which resemble pumpkin seeds and of which the uterus 
shows twenty to thirty-five lateral branches on each side. The beef 
measle worm, like the tapeworm which develops from it, is unarmed, 
and has therefore also been called G inermis to distinguish it from 
the armed pork measle worm. 

Historical. — After Linnaeus, in 1767, and Pallas, in 1781, had 
seen parts of T. saginata, Goze described the parasite in 1782. In 



420 



INVASION DISEASES 



1802 Brera described it under the name T. iuermis, and Kuchen- 
meister, in 1855, called it T. mediocanellata. 

The tapeworms in man have been known for a long time. The 
larval forms were also known, but were considered to be tumors or 
hydatids until comparatively recently, when, in 1684, Redi in Italy, 
Hartmann and Wepfer in Germany, demonstrated the animal nature 
of the larval stages from their movements and organization. 
Kiichenraeister, however, was the first person who, about the middle 
of the nineteenth century, determined by successful experiments 
that the bladder worms always represented the developmental 
stages of tapeworms. 

Fig. 118. 



Fig. 117. 




Larvte of 

Bothriocephalus latus 

from the 

musculature of the 

burbot. 





Isolated beef bladder 

worms. 

a, with seolex in natural 

position ; b, with seolex 

artificially protruded. 



Beef bladder worm in natural position and size. 



The connection between the beef measle worm and T. saginata 
was demonstrated by Leuckart ; in 1861 Leuckart fed calves with 
proglottides of T. saginata and thereby rendered the experimental 
animals measly. This experiment was made with the same result 
by Mosler, Cobbold, Simmonds, Boll, Gerlach, Ziirn, Piitz, 
Perroncito, Hertwig and others. The attempt to infest other 
animals than cattle was unsuccessful. Only Zenker and Heller 
were able in exceptional cases to cultivate the worms in young goats 
and sheep. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 421 

On the other hand, Oliver (1869), and Perroncito, with his 
students, brought T. saginata to maturity by eating the meat of 
measly cattle. 

Before these decisive experiments, physicians had observed that 
patients, especially children who were given sliced beef in a raw 
condition for the purpose of furnishing more nutriment, became 
infested with T. saginata. Moreover, it was known that the Jews, 
who do not eat pork, suffered especially from T. saginata, and finally, 
it was discovered that certain peoples which eat beef exclusively, as, 
for instance, the Abysinnians, to whom raw beef is the greatest 
delicacy, were very frequently infested with the tapeworm in ques- 
tion. These observations and experiments led Leuckart to his 
classical experiment (Braun). 

Morphology. — The beef measle worm consists of a roundish or 
somewhat elongated bladder, which is located in the interfibrillar 
connective tissue of the striated musculature, and exceptionally also 

Fig. 121. 
Fig. 120. 





Beef bladder worm without cyst, Beef bladder worm without cyst, 

4 weeks old, X 10 times 6 weeks old, X 10 times 

(after Hertwig). (after Hertwig). 

in certain internal organs, such as the lungs, liver and brain, as well 
as in the lymph glands. 

The bladder is gray, transparent, and consists of an outer con- 
nective tissue membrane produced by reaction against the 
surrounding tissue, the so-called bladder worm capsule, and of the 
parasite itself. The latter consists of a scolex (head and neck), and 
the so-called caudal bladder filled with a fluid (Figs. 119, b, and 120). 
The scolex, which is regularly invaginated into the caudal bladder, 
shines through the capsule as a white structure, varyiDg in size 
from that of a millet seed to that of a hemp seed (Fig. 118). By 
making a microscopic examination it is found that the scolex: 



422 



INVASION DISEASES 



possesses four sucking disks,* and the so-called neck exhibits 
numerous lime corpuscles. Hooks are absent. 

The size of the cysticerci which occur in food animals varies. 
They are found from the size of a pinhead to that of peas, according 
to the developmental stage in which the larval worms are found at 
the time of the slaughter of their host. Yery interesting results 
concerning the size and developmental relations of beef measles 
in different ages were obtained from feeding experiments which 
were instituted by Leuckart, Gerlach, Zurn, Ptitz and Hertwig in 



Fig. 123. 



Fig. 122 





Scolex of a beef bladder worm, 14 

weeks old, X 10 times 

(after Hertwig). 



Scolex of a beef bladder worm, 28 

weeks old, X 10 times 

(after Hertwig). 



calves, with T. saginata in a larval condition. Hertwig, in con- 
nection with a thorough review of the literature, presented a 
complete account of the conditions in question [Zlsclir. Fleisch u. 
Ililchyg., Vol. 1). According to Hertwig, the development of the 
beef measle worm required eighteen weeks. Moreover, the larval 
worm in the experiments of Hertwig when regularly removed in 
different stages, showed the following conditions of size : 



* Exceptionally, there may be six sucking disks. 



ANIMAL PAEASITES 



423 



Date 



Age of 
Larvae 

in 
weeks 



Larv^; 



Ctsticerci 
"without cyst 



Length 



Breadth 



Length 



Breadth 



Scolex 



Natural size 



Length when 
artificially 
stretched 



1890 
August 12 

" 26 

Sept. 9 

" 23 
Oct. 7 

" 21 

Nov. 4 

18 

Dec. 16 



1891 
Jan. 27 





mm. 


mm. 


mm. 


mm. 


4 


4.0 


3.5 


2.25 


2.25 


6 


4.2 


3.5 


3.0 


2.5 


8 


4.5 


3.5 


3.25 


2.75 


10 


5 


3.75-4 


3.5 


3.5 


12 


5-6 


3.5-4 


4 


4 


14 


6 


4.5 


5 


4.5 


16 


6 


4.5 


5 


4.5 


18 


6.25-7 


4.5 


6 


4 


22 


6.5-8 


4.5 


6 


4.5 


28 


7.5-9 


5.5 


7 


5 



0.5 mm. 

diameter 

1 mm. 

diameter 

1.5 mm. 

long ; 1 mm. 

broad 

1.75 mm. 

long; 1 mm. 
broad 

1.8 mm. 

long; 1 mm. 

broad 

2 mm. 
long; 1 mm. 

broad 

2 mm. 

long; 1 mm. 

broad 

2 mm. 
long; 1.25 
miQ. broad 

2.25 mm. 
long; 1.75 
mm. broad 

2.5 mm. 

long; 2 mm. 
broad 



mm. 
0.7 

1.3 

2.9 

3.3 

3.5 



4.25 



5.5—6.25 



Unusual Findings of Cysticeeci. — In addition to the trans- 
parent vesicles with plainly recognizable beginning of a scolex, we 
occasionally meet with structures which in spite of their undoubted 
cysticercal nature show considerable variation from the usual 
morphological condition of the beef measle worm. 

We frequently find structures of the size of an oat grain up to 
that of a pea, with thick, opaque, tough wall and with only a small 
cysticercus (Fig. 124). In such cases we have to do with an unusually 
strong reaction of the surrounding tissue after the penetration of 
the tapeworm embryos. The cysticercus may be intact or may be 
attached to the cyst by means of a fibrinous exudate (fibrinous 



424 



INVASION DISEASES 



Fig. 124. 



inflammation of the inner membrane of the cyst). The same 
inflammatory process may, however, appear in otherwise normally 
developed embryos during the various developmental stages and 
may cause the death of the parasite. Furthermore, the suppuration 
of the cysticerci has already been observed, apparently due to the 
introduction of purulent bacteria with the wandering embryos ; or 
to the excretion of these bacteria from the blood into the cysts, as 
has been experimentally demonstrated by Frankel. 

Furthermore, we frequently find among beef measle worms 
simple regressive metamorphoses not due to inflammatory processes. 

They begin with a coagulation 
necrosis, which appears in the 
caudal vesicle and becomes 
conspicuous as a caseation. The 
caseation passes gradually into 
calcification. During this pro- 
cess the cyst,.as a rule, remains 
intact. The regressive meta- 
morphoses may appear in beef 
measle worms in every develop- 
mental stage. It is erroneous to 
suppose that only old, fully de- 
veloped cysticerci are subject 
to caseation and calcification^ 
Moreover, attention should be 
called to the fact that all of the 
cysticerci in a particular animal 
may undergo the above men- 
tioned regressive metamorpho- 
ses, but that this is not neces- 
sarily the case. It is particularly 
true of the cysticerci which are 
located in the internal organs ; 
for example, the cardiac cysti- 
cerci. I have called attention in another place to the fact that 
degenerated tapeworm larvse may be found in a completely intact 
condition in the voluntary muscles. Kallmann called attention to 
the peculiar fact that the casefied larval tapeworms are frequently 
distinguished by their greenish color. 




Young beef bladder worms with strong <le- 
vevelopment of the capsule. At a the 
scolex shows through the capsule. Natural 
size. 



Occumience. — The beef measle worm was formerly considered 
a rr.ro parasite v\ ly-.ropo. In certain tropical countries, as, for. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



425 



example, Abyssinia, it was well known, on the other hand, that this 
worm was of very common occurrence in cattle. The rarity of beef 
measle worms among the native cattle of Europe was quite striking, 
for it stood in unexplainable contrast to the frequency of the 
appearance of Taenia saglnata in man. Physicians uniformly 
reported concerning the decrease in numbers of T. solium, the tape- 
worm which develops from pork measles, while T. saginata not only 
did not decrease, but was on the increase. 

According to Zaslin, T. -saginata at the present time occurs in 
Switzerland from nine to ten times more frequently than the previ- 
ously equally common, if not more common, T. solium. Roth in 
Basel, in 1,526 autopsies, found T. solium in no case and T. saginata 
in eleven cases. In Tubingen, Vierordt, in an examination of eleven 
tapeworm patients, found T. saginata in nine cases and T. solium in 
two cases. According to Mangold, 128 tapeworm patients were 
treated in Tubingen between the beginning of 1885 and the end of 
1894 ; of this number, 120 were infested with T. saginata, six with 
T solium and two with Bothriocephalus latus. In this connection it is 
worthy of note that all six cases of T. solium occurred in the first 
year of the report. This condition agrees with that which has been 
found by statistical investigation in Vienna, Holstein and Italy. 

Since the 60's, Krabbe identified 400 tapeworms which were 
sent to him from various parts of Denmark. His studies yielded 
the following instructive results : 



Year. 


T. 

Saginata. 


T. 

Solium. 


T. 

CUCUME- 
KINA. 


BOTHRIO- . 

CEPHALUS 

LATUS. 


Before 1869 

1869-1880 

1880-1887 

1887-1895 ...... 


37 
67 
86 
89 


53 

19 
5 


1 

4 
4 
6 


9 

11 

5 
5 


Total 


279 


77 


15 


30 



According to Berenger and Ferand, the number of taeniae found 
in France in the marine hospitals increased from 0.2 per cent, in 

1865 to 14.5 in 1890; in the city hospitals, from 2.6 per cent, in 

1866 to 6.14 per cent, in 1890. Simultaneously T. saginata became 
very frequent, while T. solium, on the other hand, became unusually 
rare. Of the 191 tapeworm cures concerning which Berenger and 



426 INVASION DISEASES 

Ferand reported, 112 whole taeniae with the head were passed. In 
all 112 cases the species was T. saginata. 

In the United States, Stiles made a study of 297 tapeworms, 
which, without exception, proved to be specimens of T. saginata. 
Herff, on the basis of forty years' practice, reports that T. saginata 
is very common in Texas. 

This striking disproportion between the appearance of T. 
saginata and the measle worms in cattle was explained by the 
discovery which was made by municipal meat inspection in Berlin- 
At the suggestion of Hertwig, late director of Berlin meat 
inspection, after a number of occasional discoveries of measle worms. 
in the masticating muscles, it was ordered that in all cattle which 
were submitted for inspection the masticatory muscles should be 
examined by means of an incision. From this order the surprising 
result was obtained that, in sharp contrast to the first five years 
(1883 to 1888), in which only four cases of beef measle worm were 
demonstrated, several hundred cases were found in a single year. 
This frequent finding of cysticerci could not be explained by assum- 
ing that the bladder worms were suddenly becoming more common 
among cattle. .They had been formerly overlooked, for the reason, 
as appeared later, that cattle are only rarely so strongly infested 
that the worms appear on the surface of the muscles during the 
ordinary inspection at the time of slaughter. It frequently occurred 
that beef measle worms were found only in the muscles of mastica- 
tion, while no other examples could be found, as a rule, in all of the 
musculature, even by a most careful inspection. The result of 
investigations in later years corresponds completely to that of the 
first year and justifies the assumption that the muscles of mastica- 
tion are to be considered as the most usual location of beef measle 
worms. 

It is a remarkable fact that more male than female cattle are 
found to be measly. In Neisse, for example, the ratio of male 
measly cattle to female was 8 : 5, although in that locality more 
cows and calves were slaughtered than bulls and oxen. This 
peculiar condition may be explained in the first place by the fact 
that the majority of male cattle are slaughtered at a young age, in 
which the infestation from larval tapeworms usually occurs, and 
also by the fact that the beef measle worms, after having infested 
an animal may later become entirely disintegrated (The Author). 

Reissmann compiled the following interesting table concerning 
the relationship of sex and infestation by cysticerci in Berlin. The 
following numbers of animals were found measly : 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



427 





Bulls. 

.. . 


Steers. 


Cows. 




Number. 


Per cent. 


Number. 


Per cent. 


Number. 


Per cent. 


1892-93, .... 
1895-96, .... 
1899, 


101 
110 
354 


.118 
.227 
.554 


86 
113 
103 


.147 
.209 
.548 


•38 

47 
86 


.124 
.156 
.309 



Usual Location and Frequency. — In by far the greater num- 
ber of cases, cattle show only a slight invasion, with the seat of 
the parasite in the masticatory muscles and heart. Thus, in Berlin 
beef muscle worms were found distributed in the following locations 
during the different years of the report, 1888-1890 : 

1. In the masticatory muscles 316 

2. In the masticatory muscles and heart 39 

3. In the masticatory muscles and cervical muscles 1 

4. In the masticatory muscles and the tongue 4 

5. In the cervical muscles 1 

6. In the cervical muscles and tongue 1 

7. In the tongue 2 

8. In the tongue and heart 2 

9. In the thoracic muscles and tongue 1 

10. In the whole musculature 22 

According to these figures the cysticerci, except in twenty-two 
cases in which they were distributed throughout the body, were 
located : 

1. In the masticatory muscles 360 

2. In the heart 41 

3. In the tongue 10 

4. In the cervical muscles 3 

5. In the thoracic muscles 1 

Tn later years the same condition prevailed. In the year 1899, 
for example, of 785 measly cattle, 754 showed only 1 cysticercus, and 
in 767 cases the larval tapeworms were found only in the masticatory 
muscles (in 266 animals, only in the internal ; in 488, only in the 
external, and in 13, in both the internal and external masticatory 
muscles) ; 14 times in the heart ; 9 times in the masticatory muscles 
and the heart ; once in the heart and in the tongue ; 3 times in the 
masticatory muscles and tongue ; once in the masticatory muscles, 
heart and thoracic muscles ; once in the masticatory muscles, heart, 
and diaphragm ; once in the heart, shoulder and thoracic muscles ; 



428 INVASION DISEASES 

and in the remaining cases generally distributed throughout the 
muscles. 

Furthermore, in other German abattoirs, as in foreign countries, 
with the regular inspection of the masticatory muscles, only 
occasionally are cysticerci found in cattle. The proportion of 
measly cattle in the kingdoms of Prussia and Saxony, in which 
cattle are regularly inspected for cysticerci in the abattoirs, averages 
about ^ per cent., ranging from .16 per cent, to 4 per cent.* 

From the account already presented concerning the distribution 
of beef measle worms in individual cases, it is apparent that next to 
the masticatory muscles, but much more rarely than these, the 
heart was infested by the larval tapeworms. This fact was estab- 
lished in Switzerland before it was discovered in Berlin. Zschokke 
asserts that in the Canton of Zurich 19 cases of measle worm in 
cattle and 38 in calves were observed in 1886 as a result of careful 
inspection of the heart. Melchers reported also from Neisse that 
he found as many cases of infestation by measle worms in the heart 
as in the head or masticatory muscles. 

At first, chief attention was directed to the finding of beef 
measle worms in the internal masticatory muscles. Glage, however, 



* The number of cases of infestation from cysticerci in cattle has increased from 
year to year in consequence of the more generally applied inspection for these larval 
tapeworms. The number of cases in the public abattoirs of the Kingdom of Prussia 
amounted to 567 in 1892, 1,143 in 1895, 5,471 (.5 per cent.) in 1899; and in the 
Kingdom of Saxony, 47 in 1893, 227 in 1895 and 496 (.46 per cent.) in 1899. 

Cysticerci are most frequently found in the abattoirs at Neisse, Danzig, Madge- 
burg, Eisenach, Aachen, Marienwerder and Kiel. The following numbers were 
found in : 

Neisse 1891-1896 3.2 -4. percent. 

Danzig . , 1894-1900 36 -3.76 

Madgeburg 1893-1899 26 -1.319 

Eisenach 1893-1894 1.91 

Aachen. 1895-1898 17 -1.24 

Marienwerder, 1893-1895 34 -1.02 

Kiel. 1891-1899. 21 - .8 

Dresden 1898 477 

Berlin 1892-1899 16 - .47 

Konigsberg in Prussia 1899 477 " 

Leipsic 1890-1900 -.32 " 

Oppeln 1894 23 

Concerning beef cysticerci in foreign countries, reports have been made by 
Krabbe in Copenhagen, Morot in Troyes, Messner in Carlsbad, Mautner in Ischl, 
Muny in Fuime, and several Italian authors. According to Krabbe, 133 or 0.044 per 
cent, of the 30,000 cattle which were slaughtered in the abattoir at Copenhagen in 
1894, were found to be measly. 



ANIMAL PAEASITES 429 

showed that the external masticatory muscles are infested with 
equal frequency and even when the measle worms were not found 
in the internal masticatory muscles. 

In addition to the masticatory muscles and the heart, the 
tongue, cervical muscles, muscular portion of the diaphragm and 
intercostal and thoracic muscles must be considered as favorite 
locations for the beef measle worm. According to Noack, these 
parasites are frequently encountered in cutting up measly beef 
animals, in the muscle group known as the round and rump. 

With the exception of the heart, the vital organs of cattle are 
not usually infested with cysticerci. Only in cases of extensive 
invasions are the lymph glands, lungs, liver and brain infested. 
Exceptionally, however, in cases of quite slight invasions, 
cysticerci are found in the lymph glands, lungs, liver, brain and 
esophagus. 

In an African beef animal, Morot found the internal mastica- 
tory muscles less strongly infested with cysticerci than the tongue 
and heart. The animal in question was extensively infested. In 
addition to the tongue and heart, cysticerci were found in largy 
numbers in the muscles of the shoulder, foreleg and also in those 
of the back, rump and hind quarter. 

Diagnosis. — The recognition of fully-developed, uninjured 
cysticerci is not difficult. It is only on the surface of the body that 
they easily escape notice in consequence of desiccation (Laboulbene). 
In other cases, the thin wall and the cyst with the invaginated 
scolex, which, however, may be easily protruded by pressure 
between the two fingers, constitutes unmistakable evidence of 
cysticerci. We have also the characteristic corrugation of the 
caudal cyst, the neck permeated with calcareous corpuscles, and, 
finally, the head armed with four sucking disks, but without hooks. 
These characters make certain the identification of the cysticercus 
of Tceiiia saginata, when examined under the microscope. 

Under certain conditions, the positive demonstration of unde- 
veloped or degenerated cysticerci may be more difficult ; in the first 
case, when the differentiation into scolex and caudal cyst has not 
yet taken place, and in the latter case, when total calcification has 
obliterated all normal structure of the parasites. In the first case, 
however, the peculiar pear shape or round form of the immature 
cysticerci, surrounded by newly-formed connective tissue, and the 
bloody exudate (Figs. 126, 127) render a provisional diagnosis 
possible. In the latter case, as shown by the author, the demon- 



430 



INVASION DISEASES 



stration of calcareous corpuscles is decisive.* For the demonstra- 
tion of these diagnostically important characters, it is sufficient to 
examine an ordinary teased preparation under slight magnification. 
For the detection of isolated cysticerci, it is absolutely neces- 
sary to examine carefully in every beef animal the masticatory 
muscles and the heart. t 

Fig. 125 




Qq 



o 



a 



Qd a 



Fio. 126. 



Fig. IS" 



dfi 



u 



Calcareous corpus cles from a teased pre- 
paration of a casefled bladder worm, 
X 150 times. Caseous detritus above 
to the left. 





Beef bladder worms in development. 



In the demonstration of cysticerci in sausages, Schmidt-Mul- 
heim proposed the following method, which is based on the 
resistance of the scolex to the digesting power of the gastric juice : 

A small sample of sausage or minced meat is digested for 
several hours continuously at a temperature of 40° C. and with 
repeated stirring in six to eight times its volume of artificial gastric 
juice, which is easily obtained by extraction of the minced mucous 
membrane of a hog's stomach with 0.5 per cent, hydrochloric acid. 



* Under the term calcareous corpuscles are understood the delicate, glassy, 
transparent disks which occur by thousands in the neck of the cysticerci. They are 
round, oval, reniform or sausage-shaped. The majority of them, however, possess a 
round or oval form (Fig. 125). The calcareous corpuscles vary in size between 0.0015 
and .019 mm. and consist of albuminate of lime. After the addition of dilute acids 
there is a residue which shows the original form of the calcareous corpuscles. 

| Formerly in southern Germany, the requirement of an inspection for beef 
measles was omitted and partly for the curious alleged reason that it was superfluous, 
since the meat was eaten in a cooked condition. The fallacy of this reasoning is 
shown by statistics collected by Mangold from clinics in the University of Tubingen, 
in which, during a comparatively short period, 120 persons were treated for Tcenia 
saginata infestation. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



431 



Fig. 128. 



While the meat and fat are digested and the latter collects in the 
form of a more or less considerable layer of fat on the surface of 
the fluid, only the wall of the cyst of the cysticerci which may be 
present is attacked and the scoleces (and especially the circle of 
hooks in the hog measle worm) exhibit an extraordinary resistance 
to the action of the gastric juice. Since these possess also a rather 
high, specific gravity, they collect at the bottom of the vessel and 
may be at once recognized in this situation as white bodies of the 
size of rice grains. Upon closer examination, especially in water, it 
is found that the white bodies, in which, even after exposure to the 
gastric juice for a day, only traces 
of an incipient solution are ap- 
parent, exhibit strongly marked 
transverse folds and that the 
completely intact head of the 
cysticercus is withdrawn into- the 
hollow cephalic prolongation or 
is protruded. In both cases the 
head is easily isolated by means of 
dissecting needles. The sucking 
disks and, in the case of hog 
measle worm, the circle of hooks, 
then become apparent under a V ■ '--■ - 
magnification of 20 diameters after 
clarifying the preparation in dilute 
glycerine. 

Bissling proposed a simpler '- --- •-.-• - -^ -J 

method of demonstrating cysticerci 
in sausage. This is based on the 
different specific gravity of the 
scoleces of the cysticerci and the muscle fibers and is practically as 
follows : 

A lye is prepared from caustic soda, potash, or some other 
readily-soluble alkali, in such concentration that pieces of meat 
which are poor in fat readily float on the surface. After it is clarified 
as much as possible, the lye is poured into a sufficiently broad glass 
vessel containing from one to four liters and the vessel drawn out 
to a point at the lower end. The finely minced meat or sausage to 
be examined is mixed with a small quantity of lye, and, without 
being crushed, is stirred so as to form a uniformly thin broth and is 
then added to the lye. Water is added, while the lye is being con- 



Bladder worm calcified at a young 
stage, with strongly developed con- 
nective tissue capsule. X 35 diam. 



432 INVASION DISEASES 

stantly stirred, until some of the pieces of meat begin to sink. 
]f cysticerci are present, they immediately sink to the bottom 
and are then easily isolated by pouring off the rest of the material. 

In order to test the viability of the cysticerci, we may use the 
method of warming (Leuckart and Perroncito). Living cysticerci 
when heated to a temperature of 30 to 40° C. exhibit under the 
microscope active movements of the rostellum, sucking disks and 
other parts of the head and neck ; while killed or dead cysticerci 
remain motionless. This thermo-microscopic investigation may be 
undertaken conveniently in the Nuttal microscope thermostat as 
well as in the simpler and cheaper warming apparatus for 
microscopic investigation devised by Kabitz and Eissling (ZeiL f. 
Fleisch. u. Milcliyg., VI). 

Differential Diagnosis. — The beef measle worm may be con- 
fused with the larval form of Tcenia marginata (Cysticercus tenuicollis) 
and with echinococci. 

Cysticercus tenuicollis is not found in the striated musculature, 
but only under the serous membranes and, in young animals, also 
in the liver. Furthermore, it possesses a double circle of character- 
istically-formed hooks (page 397). 

Echinococci, which occasionally occur also in the musculature, 
are distinguished from cysticerci by their round form and by the 
absence of any structure corresponding in size and form to the 
scolex of cysticerci. The echinococcus is either sterile — that is, 
without any head-like structure — or fertile — that is, furnished with 
numerous brood capsules. Furthermore, the lamellate structure of 
the cuticula of echinococci furnishes a good differential diagnostic 
character (page 512). As a rule, the lamellate structure is also 
apparent in degenerated echinococci and furnishes, therefore, in 
such cases, a certain criterion for diagnosis. 

Kieckhafer described a case of lymph cysts resembling cysti- 
cerci which had given occasion to confusion with beef measle worms. 
The cysts, the nature of which was immediately apparent upon 
incision, were located on the hyoglossus muscle and varied in size 
from that of peas to hazel nuts. 

Judgment. — A tapeworm (Tcenia saginata) develops in the 
alimentary canal of man from the beef measle worm. This tape- 
worm may affect the health of the host by causing distress, by 
withdrawing nutriment and frequently by recurrent digestive 






ANIMAL PARASITES 



433 



disturbances. Measly beef may, therefore, be considered a danger- 
ous food material. In this connection it should, be remembered 
that Tcenia saginata, which develops from the beef measle worm, is 
difficult to expel. On the other hand, the beef measle worm is not 
so dangerous to human health as the hog measle worm, since, 
according to all reliable observations, autoinvasion — that is, the 
formation of cysticerci in the vital organs of the host of Tcenia 
saginata— does not occur in cases of infestation by this parasite. In 
general, the cysticercus disease, as rightly asserted by Bollinger, 
cannot be considered in the same class with other zoonoses (anthrax, 
glanders, intestinal sepsis, trichinosis), since the tapeworm disease 
which arises from eating measly beef is not actually dangerous to 
life and often causes only very slight disturbances, and, as compared 
with the echinococcus disease, is to be characterized as almost 
harmless. 

Measly beef is dangerous only in a raw or half-cooked condition. 
This is shown by the fact that cooks and servant girls who 
commonly sample the meat during its cooking, furnish a large con- 
tingent to the hosts of Tcenia saginata* By means of a suitable 
treatment of measly meat, we are in a position to kill the cysticercua 
and render harmless the infesting parasites. 

Judgment of Immature and Degenerated Cysticerci. — B 
must be considered as certain that cysticerci are incapable of de- 
veloping into tape worms in the intestines of man before they have 
reached a certain developmental stage. This power is wanting, at 
least in cases where the head is absent or just beginning to develop, 
as well as in cases of incomplete development of the suckers. Simi- 
larly, completely degenerated cysticerci, in which the parasite itself 
appears to be cloudy or already calcified, must be regarded as 
harmless. Meat infested with scuh cysticerci may, therefore, be 
admitted to the market as harmless food material, without any 
special treatment, if it appears certain from an examination that 
only undeveloped or degenerated cysticerci are present. 

In the previous discussion, however, attention has already been 
called to the fact that along with degenerated cysticerci intact indi- 
viduals may also occur, and this is frequently the case in cattle. 



* The connection between the frequent occurrence of tapeworms and the custom 
of eating raw meat appears very plainly also from the statistics of army physicians. 
According to these statistics there is in no one of the German army corps so high a 
percentage of tapeworm infestations as in the Tenth, which is recruited chiefly from 
lower Saxony, where the consumption of raw minced meat is widely prevalent 



434 INVASION DISEASES 

The occurrence of intact cysticerci in the muscles of mastication at 
the same time that degenerated individuals are found in the heart 
is especially frequent. For, in the latter organ, the cysticerci may 
degenerate even during development. The simultaneous occur- 
rence of intact and degenerated cysticerci in the other muscles is 
rarer. In cases where the degenerated cysticerci are found, a care- 
ful examination of the favorite locations of the parasites should be 
undertaken in order to determine whether living specimens are 
found with the degenerated individuals. In an examination which 
I made at the Berlin abattoir, I found that when the muscles of 
mastication contained only degenerated cysticerci, the other muscu- 
lature contained no living parasites. 

Method op Destroying Cysticerci. — Beef measle worms may 
be killed by heating and by laying in brine. Moreover, it has been 
demonstrated that these parasites naturally disintegrate at the 
latest within three weeks after the death of the host. Finally, a 
destruction of the cysticerci may be brought about by freezing. 

1. Killing by Heat. — Perroncito observed that a temperature 
of 45° C. was sufficient to kill beef measle worms, as evidenced by 
the fact of their cloudy appearance, their non-motility when exam- 
ined under the microscope, and the negative results from transmis- 
sion experiments. Hertwig found in cysticerci which had been 
exposed to a temperature of 65° C. that the scolex, which in a living 
condition was unusually resistant to pressure, was so soft that it 
could be compressed between slides, like beef tallow. This altera- 
tion must be considered as an excellent criterion of the accom- 
plished destruction of cysticerci by boiling. By means of the 
above demonstration, Hertwig simultaneously disproved the wide- 
spread erroneous view that cysticerci which had been killed by 
boiling or roasting could be detected in eating the meat by a crack- 
ling sound between the teeth. In masticating boiled or roasted 
meat, one can not detect any cysticerci which may be present. 

Measly beef may thus be rendered harmless by boiling. It 
should be observed that meat is a poor conductor of heat and that 
a high degree of heat is attained in the interior of the pieces only 
slowly. This question will be considered more in detail in the spe- 
cial chapter on the " Boiling of Meat, etc." In this connection it 
may simply be mentioned that, according to experiments thus far 
made, the certain destruction of all cysticerci present in meat may 
be assumed if the meat, in pieces of any convenient length, but not 



ANIMAL PAEASITES 435 

too thick (up to 12 cm. in thickness), has been boiled for two hours. 
The meat is then well done and on cross section appears to be of a 
uniform gray color. Since this alteration of color does not occur 
until a temperature of 60° to 70° C. is reached (page 202), or a tem- 
perature which is more than sufficient to destroy the beef measle 
worm, we possess in this change a very efficient method for deter- 
mining whether a sufficiently high temperature has been produced 
uniformly throughout the meat for the destruction of the cysti- 
cerci. 

Measly beef which after boiling exhibits a gray color on cross 
section may thus with certainty be characterized as a harmless food 
material. 

Against compulsory boiling of measly beef before sale there is 
the one objection that a considerable depreciation of value is neces- 
sarily connected with the process. By the process of boiling, the 
meat loses as much as 50 per cent, in weight, and purchasers of 
boiled beef, even at low prices, are difficult to find. 

2. Killing Cysticeeci by Pickling. — Likewise, concerning the 
destruction of cysticerci by pickling, we owe the first experiments 
to the noted Italian investigator, Perroncito. This author demon- 
strated that isolated cysticerci are killed within twenty-four hours 
in a solution of common salt. But little use, however, is made of 
pickling for rendering measly meat harmless, since detailed infor- 
mation concerning the penetration of salt solutions into the interior 
of the pieces of meat is wanting. The author, therefore, tested this 
question by treating measly meat with salt solutions and examining 
the cysticerci contained in the meat, after the lapse of fourteen 
days, by heating in Nuttal's microscope-thermostat. The brine 
used in these experiments was of the same composition as that 
used by butchers in the ordinary commercial preservation of meat. 
It consisted of 2| parts saltpetre, 20 parts cane sugar, 250 parts 
common salt, and 1000 parts water. The brine solution, therefore, 
contained 25 per cent of common salt. 

The experiments showed that cysticerci contained in measly 
beef and pork invariably died within fourteen days, provided the 
meat was laid in the brine in pieces not too thick (up to 6 cm. in 
thickness), or provided that the brine was injected into the pieces 
of meat by means of a brine syringe, in accordance with the sug- 
gestion of Glage. 

The destruction of the cysticerci keeps pace with the degree of 
pickling. For demonstrating the completion of the process of pick- 



436 INVASION DISEASES 

ling, we possess a simple means in a 1 per cent, solution of nitrate 
of silver (the author). The solution of nitrate of silver produces no 
striking change on the cut surface of fresh muscle meat, but, on the 
cut surfaces of completely pickled meat, a temporary milky cloudi- 
ness is produced (chloride of silver). For making this test, one 
carefully washes in water the pieces of meat to be examined, dries 
the surface with a cloth, and makes a rapid cut through the middle 
of the piece of meat. The cut surface is then held upward and a 
few drops of a solution of nitrate of silver are allowed to fall on 
the middle of the section. In order to proceed with certainty, the 
solution of nitrate of silver may be poured into a funnel-shaped 
cavity which may easily be produced in the middle of the cut sur- 
face of the meat by cutting out (with a knife) a conical piece of 
meat. Glage has proposed a more accurate process for the demon- 
stration of the completion of the pickling process. He employs 
a 2 per cent, aqueous solution of nitrate of silver which is ren- 
dered non-sensitive toward small quantities of salt by the addition 
of ammonia. The preparation of Glage's reagent for the demon- 
stration of pickling takes place according to the following recipe : 

Argent, nitric 2 

Aqu. dest 100 

Mf . Sol. 
Adde exactissime Liquor. Ammon. canst, q. s. ad pra?cip. et perfect, resolut. 
Argenti; deinde Liquor. Ammon. caust. volumetr. 40 cc. Aqu. dest. q. s. ad 200 cc. 
in vitro flavo. 

On account of the excess of 40 cc. of normal ammonia, the mix- 
ture is so desensitized as a reagent for chlorine that in 10 cc. of 
the mixture — and not less should be used for each test — a precipi- 
tate of chloride of silver does not occur until after the addition of 
2.7 cc. of a 1:100 normal salt solution, while smaller quantities do 
not alter the clear reagent or merely produce a precipitation of 
chloride of silver which is immediately redissolved. In the use 
of Glage's reagent, there is no precipitation of the chlorides which 
normally occur in the body and which in the use of the simple 
solution of silver nitrate may interfere to a considerable extent, 
especially in the differentiation of fresh and salted livers. For 
carrying out the test, one should pour 10 cc. of the reagent into a 
glass vessel furnished with a polished glass stopper and without 
any neck-like constriction and should then drop into the reagent 
one gram of the meat to be examined, taken from the inside of a 
piece. If, after vigorous shaking, a white precipitate is formed 



ANIMAL PARASITES 437 

which becomes violet or blackish in sunlight, the meat is to be con- 
sidered as salted throughout. 

The pickling of measly beef, as compared with compulsory 
boiling, possesses the advantage that the meat by the former 
process loses only about 6.5 per cent, in weight, and is much more 
easily sold than boiled meat (Rieck). 

3. Natural Death of Beef Measle Worms During Long- 
Preservation of the Meat. — It was likewise Perroncito who ob- 
served that cysticerci die within a certain time after the death of 
the host. He found in a calf which had been artificially infested 
with cysticerci that all the parasites were dead 14 days after the 
slaughter of the animal. The tests instituted by the author 
showed that natural death does not uniformly occur in the above- 
named period, b.ut that by preserving measly beef for three weeks 
the cysticerci contained in it are rendered harmless. 

The demonstration of the fact that the cysticerci in meat pre- 
served for three weeks were dead was confirmed not only by the 
application of heat, but, in order to remove all doubt, by digestion 
experiments and especially by infection experiments in which, be- 
side the author, a large number of students and assistants at the 
Veterinary High School at Berlin took part. The results thus ob- 
tained have been confirmed by the autoinfection experiments of the 
chief city veterinarian, Reissmann, in Berlin, and several other city 
veterinarians in that place, as well as by the Dresden abattoir veteri- 
narian, Zsc-hokke. 

Rendering measly beef harmless by preservation of the meat 
ior three weeks, which, in order to avoid decomposition, should 
take place in cold storage, is the most rational method, since the 
meat thereby undergoes the least depreciation in value. It suffers 
only a minimum loss of weight and finds ready sale as raw meat. 

4. Killing Cysticerci by Freezing. — It has been demon- 
strated by Rissling, Glage and Reissmann, that beef and hog measle 
worms are killed by freezing. Glage determined that in measly pork 
which was preserved for fourteen days at a temperature of — 10° 
to — 15° C, all the cysticerci die. According to Reissmann, this re- 
sult takes place in fairly large pieces of beef and in larger than 
medium-sized hams after the lapse of four days, provided that the 
pieces of meat are kept at a temperature of — 8° to — 10° C. Cysti- 
cerci killed by freezing exhibit, in addition to their lack of motility 



438 INVASION DISEASES 

in the thermostat, a peculiar sticky character (Glage) ; also a disso- 
ciation of the calcareous corpuscles and a total stainability. 

Freezing, therefore, is a practical method for rendering measly 
beef harmless. It has the one disadvantage that the keeping qual- 
ity of the meat is considerably affected by the process of freezing. 
Frozen meat rapidly decomposes aud must, therefore, be quickly 
utilized. 

Other Methods of Killing Cysticerci. — For the sake of com- 
pleteness, it may be mentioned that cysticerci may be killed also 
by acids and by the action of electric currents (Glage). The prac- 
tical application of these methods, however, meets with difficulty. 
In the acid method, the superficial layers of the muscles are 
changed into gray flaky masses and the deeper-lying portions are 
not easily penetrated by the acid. Difficulties were met with in the 
application of the electric current from the lack of uniformity in 
the development of heat at the different poles. It sometimes hap- 
pened that the meat was burned and the fat melted. Moreover, in 
the use of the method characterized by Glage as " electrical sterili- 
zation in a raw condition," the meat was rendered somewhat soft 
by the separation of a portion of its albumen, a fact which inter- 
fered with its continued preservation. 

Cysticerci are not injured by decomposition. The author, in 
harmony with Reissmann, found that cysticerci may remain alive 
even in badly decomposed meat. 

Method of Procedure with the Meat of Measly Cattle. — 
Measly beef may be allowed on the market, provided the cysticerci 
have been killed by one of the above mentioned methods, or pro- 
vided the sale of the meat takes place under such precautionary 
measures as to permit the assumption that it will be eaten only in a 
harmless condition. 

In localities in which the sale of meat is under police supervision, 
measly beef may, therefore, be sold in a raw condition if accom- 
panied by a statement of its peculiar character and with explicit 
directions that it must be cooked before it is eaten. (See decisions 
of the Imperial Court, page 117, especially Decision IY. of July 11, 
1884, and September 29, 1885). Measly beef is sold under these 
conditions in southern Germany. If, however, the above men- 
tioned proviso is not realized, measly beef should be admitted to 
the market only after having been rendered harmless. 



ANIMAL PABASITES 439 

Measly meat, even after the destruction of the cysticerci by 
boiling, pickling, or preservation of the meat for three weeks, is 
to be considered a spoiled (inferior) food material, and is, there- 
fore, to be sold only when a statement is made of its peculiar 
character. Measly meat must be absolutely excluded from the 
market even in a cooked condition if the cysticerci are distributed 
in large quantities throughout the whole musculature, or if the 
meat has assumed a watery character in consequence of the inva- 
sion of cysticerci. 

As already indicated, there is no reason for excluding from 
the market viscera which are free from cysticerci, for they show no 
variation whatever from the normal. Fat tissue which is free 
from cysticerci is to be judged similarly. 

Regulations Concerning the Method of Procedure with the Meat of 

Measly Cattle.* 

In the Kingdom of Prussia the method of procedure with the 
meat of measly cattle is regulated at present by a ministerial decree 
of November 18, 1897, concerning the sanitary police procedure 
with measly cattle and calves. The decree reads as follows : 

By a circular decree of February 16, 1876, the regulations which seem to be 
required in the interest of sanitary science for the treatment of measly hogs, 
according to the opinion of the Royal Scientific Deputation for the Medical Service 
of February 2, 1876, are made known, and are also applicable in the case of measly 
cattle. 

Since the conditions for the destruction of the beef measle worm have been more 
accurately determined by detailed investigations, we have compiled ''the principles 
for the sanitary police procedure with measly cattle and calves." While we hereby 
repeal all previous regulations and order that until further notice procedure in this 
case shall be governed according to the principles hereby formulated, we call atten- 
tion at the same time to the following statements: 

For the purpose of bringing about a uniform practice of inspection for beef 
measle worms, the examination should be made in such a manner that the muscu- 
lature which is exposed during slaughter, especially the external and internal muscles 
of mastication, tongue and heart, should be carefully inspected, and that extensive 
incisions parallel with the rami of the maxillary bones should be made in the 
muscles of mastication, f Meat is to be considered well boiled when a uniform gray 
color is observed on a fresh cross section. 



* From the time when the Imperial Meat Inspection Law comes into force, 
regulations of general application will exist concerning the method of procedure 
with the meat of measly cattle. 

f In calves up to the age of six weeks, the inspection of the muscles of masti- 
cation for cysticerci may be omittted. (Circular decree of the Ministries of Agri- 
culture, etc., July 1, 1898). 



440 INVASION DISEASES 

The content of salt solution is to be accurately determined or controlled in. 
the preparation of brine, or by means of the alkalimeter. 

The pieces to be utilized in pickling shall not be heavier than 2J kg. Pickled 
meat is to be kept under police control during the prescribed period. 

For the determination of the temperature in cold storage rooms, tested maxi- 
mum and minimum thermometers are to be used, and reliable self-registering 
hygrometers for the determination of the moisture. 

The temperature and moisture content of the room are to be taken during the 
forenoon and evening of each day and to be registered in tabular form. 

When properly equipped, cold storage rooms in operation in public abattoirs 
can be considered as "suitable." The district veterinarian, in cooperation with the 
local police authorities, shall decide in each individual case whether the conditions 
for the proper treatment of the meat by cooking or hanging are present. The meat 
of cattle which are only slightly infested with cystieerci may be hung in quarters in 
special apartments under police control ; that of calves in a similar condition, with- 
out quartering. In a given apartment, only the meat of one or several measly ani- 
mals slaughtered on the same day should be hung; the dressed meat of animals 
slaughtered on different days should be placed in the same apartment only when the 
pieces of meat are so stamped that all possible confusion is avoided. 

Although it has been demonstrated by previous investigations that the decompo- 
sition of the meat does not take place in cold storage rooms with the required tem- 
perature and moisture content, it should, nevertheless, be determined by a veterina- 
rian after the lapse of 21 days and before the meat is discharged, whether the meat- 
has kept well and is not spoiled. 

By means of the provision that the meat of animals slightly infested with cysti- 
eerci and which has been rendered suitable for human consumption shall be sold only 
to the consumer or for domestic use, it is intended to prevent commercial middlemen, 
butchers, sausage makers, and hotel keepers from obtaining possession of such meat. 
If considered necessary, the resale of this meat is to be forbidden under penalty of 
law. 

A report is to be made on measly cattle and calves according to the enclosed 
scheme covering the preceding calendar year up to February 15 of each year, and, 
beginning with February 15, 1899, is to be concluded by a short report on the opera-, 
tion of these regulations. 

Finally, for the purpose of communicating with the districts concerned, we give 
notice that the opinions of the Scientific Deputation for the Medical Service and of 
the Technical Deputation for the Veterinary Service, which furnished the founda- 
tions for the decree of these regulations, are published in the Vierteljahrschrift 
fur Gerichtliche Medizin und Oeffentlicheg Sanitatswesen, XIV., Supplement, Octo- 
ber, 1897, pp. 117, 142. 

Principles Governing the Sanitary Police Procedure With Measly Cattle 

and Calves. 

According to the number of cystieerci, distinction is made between 

(a) Animals with at most ten living cystieerci: slightly infested animals.* 

(b) Animals with more than ten living cystieerci : badly infested animals. 






* By means of a circular decree of the above mentioned Ministries of June 16, 
1898, it is ordered that in estimating the number of cystieerci, all living cystieerci 
shall lie included which are found before boiling, pickling, or hanging the meat in 
cold storage, without regard to the place or time, or whether they are found during 
slaughter or during the subsequent cutting up of the meat. 



ANIMAL PARASITES Ml 



For free utilization as human food are admitted : 

1 . Rendered lard, unconditionally. 

2. The liver, spleen, kidneys, stomach and intestines of animals slightly infested 
"with cysticerci (a) in so far as these organs are found upon veterinary inspection to 
be free from cysticerci. 

3. Animals slightly infested with cysticerci (a) in which the cysticerci which are 
found are, according to veterinary opinion, in a condition of complete calcification. 

II. 

For domestic use or for sale in special booths, f reibanks, etc. , in pieces not larger 
•than 2^ kg. and for sale only to the consumers and under statement of its measly 
nature, it is permitted to sell meat of animals slightly infested with cysticerci (a) after 
its dangerous properties have been removed under veterinary supervision : 

1. By thorough boiling. 

2. By pickling for twenty-one days in a 25 per cent, brine, or, 

3. By preservation for twenty-one days in suitable* cold storage rooms in which 
a temperature of 3 deg. to at most 7 deg. C. prevails and a moisture content of 70 to 
at most 75 per cent. 

III. . 

The carcasses of animals badly infested with cysticerci (i) are to be utilized for 
technical purposes or otherwise rendered innocuous under police supervision. 

In the Kingdom of Saxony, the meat of measly cattle, according to Section 5 of 
the new regulations. Appendix 6 to Section 16 of the regulations for carrying out the 
Saxon Meat Inspection Law (principles underlying the judgment of meat), is to be 
thoroughly boiled, pickled or refrigerated. ; 

In the Grand Duchy of Baden, the following principles prevail : 

1. Meat is to be considered as unfit for food when the cysticerci are present in 
such numbers that they are seen on the majority of the cut surfaces in the body 
musculature. 

2. The meat of animals slightly infested with cysticerci — that is, animals in which 
Dnly isolated cysticerci occur, except in the muscles of mastication — is to be considered 
as fit for food, but not marketable after a previous boiling, pickling or refrigeration 
for three weeks under police supervision. The temperature in cold storage must not 
exceed 5 deg. C. If the cysticerci are shown to be dead, this procedure is not 
necessary. 

3. The meat of animals in which only isolated cysticerci occur in the muscles of 
mastication is marketable, but in such cases the head is to be treated according to No. 2. 

In other States the present procedure with measly beef will remain the same as 
that with measly pork until the regulations for carrying out the Imperial Meat 
Inspection Law bring out uniformity in this matter. 

JlJGDMENT OF THE VlSCERA OF THE MEAT OF MEASLY CATTLE. — As 

a rule, the viscera of measly cattle, with the exception of the heart, 

*The District Veterinarian, in connection with the local authorities, shall decide 
concerning the " suitability." 



442 



INVASION DISEASES 



contain no cysticerci. The viscera can not, therefore, be regarded as 
dangerous to life, like musculature infested with the parasites ; and, 
if they are shown to be free f rom cysticerci by inspection, they 
require no treatment for rendering them harmless, but in such cases 
may be freely admitted to the market. 

(b) Hog Bladder Worm (Cysticercus Cellulosse). 

Nature. — The hog measle worm is the larval stage of a thin 
taenia of man, erroneously considered a solitary tapeworm (Tcenia 
solium, Rndolphi). T. solium is 2 to 3 m. long; the mature pro- 




Fig. 130. 



«^fk l,? . % 





Circle of hooivs of the pork bladder 

worm. From a photograph. 

X 35 diameters. 



Scolex of Cysticercus cellulosse. 
X 12 diameters. 

glottides are provided with a uterus which sends out from seven to 
ten lateral branches on either side. On account of its location in 
the connective tissue which lies between the muscle fibers, the hog 
measle worm is given the name "connective tissue bladder worm " 
(Cysticercus celluloses). C. cellulosce is provided with a double row of 
hooks (Fig. 130). 

Historical. — According to Falck, the hog bladder worms were 
described by Aristotle. Moreover, they were mentioned in tliti 



ANIMAL PARASITES 443 

earliest regulations concerning meat inspection, and the frequency 
of their occurrence led to the establishment of special sale booths, 
" measle banks " or freibanks. According to Braun, it was demon- 
strated by the experiments of Kuchenmeister (1855), Humbert 
(1854), Leuckart (1856), Hollenbach (1859) and Heller (1876) that 
Gysticercus. celluloses develops into Taenia solium in the human intes- 
tines. Similarly, by feeding ripe proglottides to hogs, Gysticercus 
cellulosce was repeatedly reproduced (Van Beneden, 1853 ; Haubner 
and Kuchenmeister, 1855 ; Leuckart, 1856 ; Mosler, 1865 ; Gerlach, 
1870, et al). 

Morphology. — With regard to its location between the muscle 
fibers and also in great degree with respect to its microscopic 
peculiarities, Cysticercus cellulosm agrees with the beef measle worm. 
For the rest, the hog bladder worm shows the following peculiari- 
ties : The cyst is more delicate and therefore more transparent 
than in the case of beef measle worm. The scolex, when invagi- 
nated into the caudal bladder, therefore, shows through the cyst 
more conspicuously in the case of the hog measle worm than in 
the beef measle worm. Moreover, the scolex of the hog measle 
worm possesses a double circle of hooks which is wanting in the 
beef measle worm. The number of hooks amounts to 22 to 28 
(Fig. 130). The hooks are of compressed form with strong bases 
and rather slightly curved points (Fig. 134). The length of the 
large hooks is 0.16 to 0.18 mm. ; that of the small hooks, 0.11 to 
0.14 mm. 

The size of the hog measle worm varies, as in the case of the 
beef measle worm, according to the stage of development in which 
the parasites are found at the time of the slaughter of their host. 
By means of feeding experiments, Gerlach demonstrated the follow- 
ing facts concerning the development of the hog measle worm : 

1. Cysticerci 20 days old : A delicate transparent vesicle of 
the size of a pin head without enveloping membrane ; rudimentary 
head indicated by a cloudy point. 

2. Cysticerci 40 days old : Enveloping membrane still very 
delicate ; of the size of a mustard seed or sometimes larger ; head 
very plain ; sucking disks and a circle of hooks recognizable, but 
not completely developed. 

3. Cysticerci 60 days old : While in the enveloping membrane, 
of the size of a pea or larger ; when taken out of the connective tis- 
sue enveloping membrane, more reniform ; head projecting some- 
what from the vesicle as a faint white button-like structure ; true 



444 



INVASION DISEASES 



neck still wanting; row of hooks and sucking disks completely 
developed ; difference in size. 

4. Cysticerci 110 days old : All of about the same size ; neck 
developed; transverse furrows indicated; the head, free from the 
firm enveloping membrane, lies invaginated into the caudal cyst. ' 
After the head is forced out, the cysticerci have the form of a flask. 

Occurrence. — In contrast with the distribution of Cysticercus 
bovis, C. cellulosce is comparatively rare in our native hogs. In some 

Fig. 131. 




Heart of a hog infected with Cysticercus 
cellulosas. 



parts of Germany, as Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Baden, and Hohenzol- 
lern, the hog nieasle worm is almost never observed at present. 
This rare occurrence of the hog measle worm corresponds with that 
of Tcenia solium in man.* Formerly the hog measle worm was of 
quite frequent occurrence, even among the native hogs. At pres- 
ent only hogs imported from Russian Poland, Galicia, Bohemia, 
Servia and Roumania are found to be frequently infested with 
cysticerci. Among Servian hogs, the introduction of which into 

* According to Mangold, the last cases of T. solium at the Tubingen Medical 
Clinic were observed in 1887. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 445 

•Germany was quite extensive up to the beginning of the 90's, one- 
half of the shipments were frequently found to be measly. 

The gradual disappearance of the hog measle worm from Ger- 
many is a classical demonstration of the certain and beneficial effect 
of a regulated meat inspection. In this respect there is no essential 
difference between northern and southern Germany. While in 
northern Germany meat inspection has only recently been subject 
to general regulations, the extermination of hog measle worms was 
begun long ago, for trichina inspectors were instructed to take 
notice of the presence of cysticerci when taking samples for trichina 
inspection. At present it is only in the eastern provinces of Prussia 
that cysticerci in hogs are demonstrated with comparative fre- 
quency. 

It is worthy of mention that, according to the results of Ger- 
lach's feeding experiments, the eggs of Taenia solium are unable to 
develop into cysticerci except in young swine (pigs up to one-half 
year old). 

Frequency of Cysticerci in Hogs. — Concerning the frequency of 
cysticerci in native hogs, the following figures are available : 

In the Kingdom of Prussia, according to the seven-year average 
(1876-1882), one in every 305 hogs slaughtered was measly (Johne). 
Later the proportion became constantly wider. From 1886 to 
1889, it was 1 in 551 ; in 1890-1892, 1 in 817 ; and, finally, in 1896, 
2 in 1,470. 

In the Kingdom of Saxony, iu 1894, one in every 686 hogs was 
found to be measly. In 1895, the proportion widened to 1 in 2,049, 
and in 1896, 1 in 5,886. 

In Berlin, in 1883-1884, 1,621 measly hogs were found among 
244,343 ; in 1884-1885, 1,468 in 264,727 ; iir 1885-1886, 2,740 in 
285,882 ; in 1886-1887, 1,786 in 310,840 ; in 1887-1888, 2,333 in 
419,848 ; in 1888-1889, 2,328 in 479,124 ; and in 1889-1890, 1,887 
in 442,115. Thus, as an average for the seven years, one measly 
hog was found in each 173 slaughtered. In 1895-1896, the rela- 
tion of measly hogs to the total number of slaughtered hogs was 
1 to 1,000 ; and in 1896-1897, 1 to 1,363. 

In southern Germany, measly hogs are rare. 

In the Kingdom of Prussia, hog measle worms are much more 
frequent in the eastern provinces than in the western. Thus, in 
1892 the ratio of measly hogs to the total number of slaughtered 
hogs in the governmental district of Marienwerder was 1 : 28 ; in 
Oppeln, 1:80; in Konigsberg, 1:108; in Stralsund and Posen, 



446 INVASION DISEASES 

1 : 187, and in Danzig, Frankfurt, and Bromburg, 1 : 250, as con- 
trasted with Arnsberg with a proportion of 1 : 865 ; Coblenz, 1 : 975 ; 
Diisseldorf, 1 : 1,070 ; Miinster and Wiesbaden, 1 : 1,900. The aver- 
age proportion of measly hogs for the whole Kingdom of Prussia 
was 1 : 1,290, and for the eastern provinces 1 : 604 

The diminution in the number of measly hogs is best shown by 
the following percentage computation : 

(a) Kingdom of Prussia. 

„ Percentage 

r of measly hogs 

1876-1882 0.324 

1886-1889 181 

1890-1892 122 

1899 09 

(b) Kingdom of Saxony. 

1894... 0.157 

1896 .017 

1899. .010 

(c) Berlin. 

1883-1890.' 0.577 

1892-1893 .319 

1895-1896 099 

1899 043 

Concerning the frequency of Gysticercus cellulosce in hogs slaugh- 
tered in foreign countries, there are only meagre data. According 
to Krabbe, only one measly hog was found among 1,334,000 slaugh- 
tered at the abattoir in Copenhagen. On the other hand, Prett- 
ner found 3.44 per cent, of the hogs slaughtered in Prag to be in- 
fested with cysticerci. Moreover, of the hogs imported from Rus- 
sian Poland into Myslowitz, Beuthen, Kattowitz and Tarnowitz, 
more than 1 per cent, were measly. 

Occurrence of Gysticercus cellulosce in Other Animals. — In addition 
to hogs, G. cellulosce may be found occasionally also in sheep, dogs, 
bear and deer. Furthermore, according to Braun, this parasite 
may occur in cats, rats and apes. 

During the sanitary police inspection of slaughtered dogs in 
recent years, cysticerci have frequently been found ; for example, in 
1890, a dog was found in Chemnitz extensively infested with cysti- 
cerci. 

Case/led and Calcified Hog Measle Worms. — The hog measle worm, 
as well as the beef measle worm, may undergo regressive metamor- 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



447 



Fig. 132. 



pilosis. This alteration, however, is more rarely observed in the 
former than in the latter. As a rule, hog measle worms appear to 
degenerate at a very early developmental stage. The dead cysti- 
cerci appear as elongated or spherical casefied or calcified struc- 
tures which usually stand at the limit of microscopic visibility, but 
occasionally reach the size of hempseed. Casefied hog measle 
worms have a gray color, while calcified specimens are pure white. 
Caseation and calcification are observed in both slight and exten- 
sive invasions, but are more frequent in the latter case. Moreover, 
in hogs, as contrasted with cattle, as a rule all of the cysticerci are 
affected with regressive metamor- 
phosis, excepting only the rare 
cases of extensive invasion in 
which, in addition to the muscula- 
ture, also the liver, lungs and other 
vital organs are infested with cys- 
ticerci ; for the cysticerci in the 
viscera, especially those in the 
liver and lungs, usually disinte- 
grate at an early stage, while the 
muscle cysticerci undergo further 
development in a normal manner. 
When numerous cysticerci 
have disintegrated, the heart and 
skeletal musculature is found to 
be sprinkled with white granules 
(" calcareous concretions "). Un- 
der the microscope, a tough con- 
nective tissue membrane and a 
more or less strongly calcified 
center may be demonstrated in 
the calcified structure (Fig. 132). 
careous corpuscles and hooks 
center. 




Bladder worm calcified at a young 
stage, with strongly developed con- 
nective tissue capsule. X 35 diam. 

Under certain conditions, cal- 
are to be demonstrated in the 



Extensive Infestations. — In hogs, much more frequently than in 
cattle, one observes extensive invasions of cysticerci. This fact is 
sufficiently explained by the method of managing hogs, as well as 
by their nature as omnivorous animals in the broadest sense. As 
many cases of extensive as of slight infestation are observed in 
hogs. The invasion of cysticerci may be so extensive that the 
parasites lie side by side in such a manner as to leave only frag- 



448 INVASION DISEASES 

ments of active muscle substance intact. In such degrees of infesta- 
tion the musculature is discolored grayish-red and quite watery. 
In slighter cases of infestation this is never the case. Moreover, 
in cases of extensive invasion one frequently finds cysticerci in the 
lymphatic glands, panniculus adiposus and brain. On the other 
hand, even in extensive invasions, cases in which the lungs, liver, 
and other viscera, in addition to the musculature, are infested with 
cysticerci, are very rare. 

Ratio of Extensive to Slight Cases of Invasion in Hogs. — In the 
years 1884 to 1887, according to statistics in Berlin, the ratio of 
extensively infested hogs to those slightly infested with cysticerci 
was as follows : 



Year 


Extensively 
infested 


Moderately 
infested 


Slightly 
infested 


1884-5 


54a 


489 


436 


1885-6 . 


1,002 


743 


995 


1886-7 


623 


409 


371 



Hogs in which, despite a careful examination of all muscle sur- 
faces which are exposed by the ordinary commercial cutting up of 
the animals, only one specimen of Gysticercus cellulosce could be demon- 
strated, were found in the following numbers, according to the 
statements of Hertwig : In 1885-6, 156 ; in 1886-7, 279 ; in 1887-8, 
408 ; in 1888-9, 446 ; and in 1889-90, 317. 

Later in Berlin it was found convenient, from practical con- 
siderations, to make a distinction only between extensively and 
slightly infested hogs. Inspection of hogs gave the following 
results : 



Year 


Total number 
measly hogs 


of 


Extensively 
infested 


Slightly 
infested 


1895-6 


627 




304 


323 


1896-7 


509 




251 


258 


1899 


325 




118 


207 



Most Fbequent Locations. — The usual seat of the hog measle 
worm is in the abdominal muscles, muscular portion of the dia- 
phragm, lumbar muscles, tongue, heart, muscles of mastication, 
intercostal muscles and cervical musculature, the gracilis, and 
sternal musculature. * These preferred locations of Gysticercus 
cdhdosai must be most carefully examined in all slaughtered hogs, 



* For the purpose of inspecting the abdominal muscles, a previous removal of the 
retroperitoneal fat tissue is indispensable, and for inspecting the cervical muscula- 
ture, it is necessary that the hog be split into two lateral halves. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



449 



and, like the heart and muscles of mastication, must in all cases be 
tested by incision. 

Among the vital organs, the heart and brain should be named 
as frequent locations for the hog measle worm, and among the 
other organs the lymphatic glands and panniculus adiposus. 

Fig. 133. 



Fig. 134. 





Hooks from Cysticercus cellulosse, 
seen from the side and in front. 

From photographs. 

a, large hooks ; b, small hooks. 

X 275 diameters. 



Preferred locations of the pork bladder worm. 
a, gracilis; b, lumbar muscles; c, abdominal 
muscles; d, pillars of the diaphragm; e, 
costal portion of diaphragm; /, intercostal 
muscles; g, sternal muscles; h. neck muscu- 
lature ; i, internal masticatory muscles. 



Cysticercus ceUulosce is found in the other viscera only excep- 
tionally and, as a rule, only in case of extensive invasion. In 
such cases the cysticerci are observed in the lungs, liver and 
spleen. Prettner found the eye to be an exceptional site of cysti- 
cerci. He examined the eyes of 400 measly hogs and discovered 



450 INVASION DISEASES 

cysticerci in the interior of the eyes in a subretinal position in 
two of the hogs. 

The frequent occurrence of hog bladder worms in the muscu- 
lature of the tongue is utilized by meat dealers in diagnosing 
infestation by cysticerci in living animals. For this purpose hogs 
are thrown upon their side and the mouth opened with a stick. 
The tongue is. then drawn out with a cloth and subjected to inspec- 
tion and palpation for the presence of cysticerci. Hogs thus 
recognized as measly during life, form a favorite material for trade 
in localities without regular meat inspection. This dangerous prac- 
tice is to be checked in all possible ways. A legal means of 
accomplishing this purpose is furnished by the food law, which, 
according to several decisions of the Imperial Court (page 111), is 
applicable also to living food animals, and, therefore, provides a 
penalty according to Section 12 for the sale of living hogs known 
to be measly. 

Diagnosis. — The diagnosis of fully developed hog measle worms 
presents as little difficulty as the recognition of developed beef measle 
worms. In hog measle worms which have undergone an alteration of 
their appearance, color and size in consequence of regressive meta- 
morphoses, the calcareous corpuscles (Fjg. 125) and also the hooks 
(Fig. 134) demonstrate the presence of the remains of cysticerci. 
These diagnostically important parts are wanting only in cases 
Where the hog measle worms have degenerated and become com- 
pletely calcified before the formation of the scolex. In this case, 
however, their position in the interfibrillar muscle tissue and the 
presence of a strong connective tissue capsule furnishes the means 
of making a probable diagnosis. 

In case cysticerci are present in the viscera, the demonstration 
of Gysticercus celluloses must be made by means of a microscopic 
examination. 

Differential Diagnosis. — With regard to a differential diag- 
nosis, attention should be called to the fact that the harmless 
Gysticercus tenuicollis has been confused with the dangerous C. 
■cellulosce (Fig. 99). The harmless cysticercus, however, is distin- 
guished from the dangerous one, as should be again emphasized, by 
its exclusive occurrence under the serous covering of the viscera, in 
the latter, and under the peritoneal covering of the abdominal 
muscles and diaphragm. G. tenuicollis is not found in the muscula- 
ture. Furthermore, after removing G. tenuicollis from its cysts, its 



ANIMAL PAEASITES 451 

long neck is conspicuous (Fig. 100). And, finally, this parasite 
possesses from 32 to 40 hooks, as contrasted with the 22 to 28 of G. 
celluloses. With regard to the hooks themselves, those of C. 
tenuicollis are longer, slenderer and more curved at the points than 
the hooks of C. cellulosce. Moreover, Schwarz called attention to the 
form (resembling a thumbnut) of the basal processes of the small 
hooks in G. tenuicollis. This condition was not observed by Schwarz 
in C. cellulosce. , It should not be forgotten, however, that even on 
the small hooks of G. cellulosce a bifurcation or a median groove is 
indicated (Figs. 102, 134). 

Schwarz examined 1,000 specimens each of G. cellulosce and G. 
tenuicollis from different localities and found that in the former 
species there are usually 22 to 28 hooks ; in the latter, 28 to 36. 
Moreover, during his observations, Schwarz noted that in G. 
tenuicollis, as a rule (in 75 per cent, of the circles of hooks which 
were investigated), one or more small hooks were demonstrable, the 
basal process of which was bifurcated. In the 1,000 specimens of 
G. cellulosce examined by Schwarz, this was not the case in a single 
instance. Beissmann has confirmed these observations. 

Judgment. — Measly pork is not merely harmful to human 
health like measly beef, but is dangerous. For, not only does a 
tapeworm, Tcenia solium, develop from the cysticercus, but there 
may occur the production of cysticerci in the human body by 
autoinfection of the host with the larvae of this tapeworm. Most 
probably this autoinfection is brought about by the fact that ripe 
proglottides of T. solium make their way into the stomach in conse- 
quence of an antiperistaltic movement of the intestinal contents, 
and in this situation embryos have an opportunity, under the 
influence of the gastric juice, to emerge from the eggs. On the 
other hand, it is possible that persons of uncleanly habits infested 
with tapeworms soil their fingers, during defecation, with excrement 
containing eggs and thus introduce the eggs into the stomach along 
with food. However this may be, the fact remains that G. cellulosce 
occurs rather frequently in man as compared with C. bovis, which 
has never been demonstrated with certainty in man. The danger 
of self-infection with the larva of T. solium lies in the fact that in 
man the cysticerci become located not only in the muscles but also 
in the vital organs, especially in the brain and eyes. 

Concerning the frequency and location of C. cellulosce in man, 
Haugg. has colLected the following statistics : 



452 INVASION DISEASES 

Among 87 persons infested with cysticerci, Dressel found 
cysticerci in the brain in 72 cases ; in the muscles, on the other 
hand, in only 13 cases. Among 36 cases investigated by Karl 
Miiller, cysticerci were found in the brain in 21, in the skeletal 
musculature in 12, and in the heart in 3 cases. Gribbohm described 
six cases, in which the brain was infested in 5 and the brain and 
muscles simultaneously in one. Five cases described by Sievers 
showed cystiserci in the brain in all. In one case, however, cysti- 
cerci were also present in the muscles. Finally, Havigg himself, 
from autopsies at the Pathological Institute in Erlangen (1874 to 
1885), collected 25 cases, in 13 of which the brain was infested, the 
muscles in 6 and the subcutis in 2 cases. The muscle most fre- 
quently infested was the pectoralis major. Von Grafe (in 80,000 
patients with eye disease) observed cysticerci in the eye in 90 cases, 
and Everbusch has observed two such cases since 1874. According 
to Gast, 9 cases of intraocular cysticerci were observed at the 
Breslau Eye Clinic between 1885 and 1889. 

In southern Germany, thanks to the long existence of regulated 
meat inspection, cysticercus disease of man is rarer than in northern 
Germany. In Wurtemburg, for example, according to Schleich, 
only six cases cf ocular cysticerci have ever been observed ; and in 
Munich, according to Bollinger, in 14,000 cadavers, only two cases 
of cerebral cysticerci were observed. Kecently a diminution in the 
extent of the cysticercus disease has been noted also in Berlin. 
According to Virchow, the proportion of cysticercus infestation in 
the brain has diminished since the introduction of meat inspection 
from 1:31 to 1:280 of the autopsies. In Berlin, Hirschberg, in the 
years from 1869 to 1885, found 70 cases of cysticerci in the eye 
among 60,000 eye patients ; in the following six years, however, only- 
two cases among 46,000 eye patients, and of these one came from 
Saxony. 

However, like measly beef, measly pork is also dangerous only 
in a raw condition. The latter, like the former, may be rendered 
harmless by pickling and boiling. In this regard, essentially the 
same statement may be made for the hog measle worm as was made 
concerning the beef measle worm, and likewise with regard to the 
utilization of measly meat in slight and extensive invasions in cases 
of the presence of undeveloped or degenerated cysticerci and with 
regard to the utilization of the viscera free from cysticerci. The 
hog measle worm, however, is distinguished from the beef measle 
worm by the fact that it is somewhat more resistant to heat. The 



ANIMAL PARASITES 453 

liog measle worm is not killed until a temperature of 49° C. is 
reached. A farther difference consists in the fact that the hog 
measle worms remain alive much longer than the beef measle 
worms after the death of their host. While beef measle worms are 
always found dead after a period of twenty-one days, I have found 
living hog measle worms in meat which has been slaughtered forty- 
two days. Measly pork, therefore, can not, like measly beef, be 
rendered harmless by preservation in cold storage. This, however, 
is without practical significance, since hog measle worms are of 
much rarer occurrence than beef measle worms and since boiled or 
pickled measly pork cau always be sold readily at a reasonable 
price. Measly pork is to be considered as harmless if it has been 
boiled so that the cut surface possesses a uniformly white color. 

Official Regulations Concerning the Method oi Procedure with the Meat 

of Measly Hogs.* 

With regard to the utilization of measly hogs, the following 
ordinance was passed in the Kingdom of Prussia, February 16, 1876: 

In response to the report of October 23 of last year concerning the complaint of 
the Master Butcher N— — , on account of the destruction of measly pork ordered by 
police authority, we send the inclosed certified copy of the opinion given on this 
question by the Royal Scientific Deputation for the Medical Service, with the request 
that in cases of police regulations concerning hogs infested with cysticerci the 
suggestions made at the conclusion of the opinion should serve as a guide for legal 
action; that the local police president as well as the other police authorities of the 

district should be furnished with these instructions and that 1ST should be 

informed accordingly. 



Your Excellency has requested of the undersigned Scientific Deputation for the 
"Medical Service an opinion concerning the regulations which have been made in the 
interests of the sanitary police with regard to hogs found infested with cysticerci. 
The Deputation accordingly incloses herewith the required opinion: 

1. That fat obtained from measly hogs by rendering or cooking may be utilized 
unconditionally, but that lean meat can only be admitted for sale or for use in one's 
own household in cases where it is only slightly infested with cysticerci and is 
thoroughly boiled under police supervision after having been previously cut up.t 

2. That no objection whatever, from a sanitary police standpoint, can be raised 
against the use of suitable parts of measly hogs in the preparation of soap or glue, 



* These regulations will become applicable throughout the whole German Empire 
as soon as the Imperial Meat Inspection Law comes into force. 

f According to a decision of the Second Criminal Senate of the Imperial Court, 
March 25, 1884 (p. 106), the rendered fat of measly hogs is to be sold under 
declaration. 



454 INVASION DISEASES 

or against the free utilization of the skin and bristles, and the chemical utilization of 
the whole body; and that these uses«are to be permitted without hesitation. 

3. That in all cases in which hogs are found to be badly infested with cysticerci, 
care must be exercised by the police to secure the certain destruction of the carcass 
after this has been utilized so far as admissible.* 

With reference to the utilization of viscera free from cysticerci, 
a decree of the Ministries of Interior and Education, June 26, 1883, 
permits the fat, liver and intestines of hogs found to be measly to 
be freely admitted to the market as food for man, provided they 
have been found, upon examination, to be free from cysticerci. 

In Bavaria the following regulations are in force, in accordance 
with the opinion of the Royal Superior Medical Committee, 
May 20, 1882 : 

1. The meat of hogs extensively infested with cysticerci is to be withheld from 
consumption and from the public market and is to be rendered harmless in a suitable 
manner. In the case of fat hogs, the separation and removal of the bacon is to be 
allowed at the request of the owner. No objection can be raised to the technical 
utilization of such animals. 

2. In cases where the cysticerci occur only sparingly in the meat, it may, 
according to the opinion of a scientific meat inspector and after it has been properly 
cooked under police supervision, be turned over to the owner for use in his own 
household. The owner is to be properly instructed concerning the danger to human 
health from measly meat and is to be made cognizant of the police regulations con- 
cerning the control of such matters. 

3. The public sale of meat slightly infested is to be permitted in freibanks under 
declaration of the danger from the meat, only after it has been properly cooked under 
police supervision. 

In the Kingdom of Saxony, the meat of hogs slightly infested 
with cysticerci is to be admitted to the market in a cooked or 
pickled condition as non-marketable. The fat may be treated by 
rendering instead of boiling or pickling. The liver, spleen, kidneys, 
stomach and intestines of measly hogs may be utilized in a raw 
condition as non-marketable, provided they are found to be free 
from cysticerci by veterinary inspection. 

(c) Trichina Spiralis. 

Zoological Position. — According to the classification of 
Schneider, trichina belongs to the third group of nematodes, the 
Holomyaria. It is the only representative of its genus. Other 



* In the Prussian Governmental district of Arnsberg, it is provided that all 
measly hogs, whether found to be slightly or badly infested with cysticerci, are to be 
utilized for technical purposes only. There is no scientific basis for such a rigorous 
procedure. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 455 

nematodes have been erroneously considered to be trichinae.* 
Distinction is made between sexually immature individuals located 
in the intestines and the larvae which are found in the musculature. 
It is only the latter, the so-called muscle trichinae, which possess 
sanitary police interest, for they occur spontaneously in one food 
animal, the hog, and may be transmitted through the meat to man 
and cause in man a serious disease — trichinosis. 

"With regard to the history of trichina, it should be stated that 
the English physician, Hilton, in 1832, first investigated calcified 
trichinae in the human cadaver, without, however, having discovered 
the worm in the capsule. According to Ziirn, these structures were 
observed in 1822 by Tiedemann, in 1828 by Peacock. The worm 
contained in the capsule was first noticed by Paget in 1835 in an 
Italian dead of tuberculosis, and was described by Owen, who 
received material from Paget, as the spiral hair worm {Trichina 
spiralis). After this determination and description, the matter 
rested. Other observations, to be sure, were published concerning 
the occurrence of encapsulated trichinae in man, for example, in 
England, in Berlin, Heidelberg, and in North America. Farther- 
more, the parasite was found by Leidy jn a hog in Philadelphia in 
1847 and in a cat by Herbst in Gottingen, and by Guilt in Berlin. 
Moreover, in 1850, Herbst succeeded in infecting a badger with 
encapsuled trichinae from a dog ; and by means of the meat of the 
latter, two dogs were rendered trichinous. The sanitary police 
significance of trichina was, however, first recognized in 1860, as a 
result of an observation of Zenker and the experimental investiga- 
tions of Leuckart and Virchow. 

Zenker was the discoverer of trichinosis. As professor of 
pathological anatomy and general pathology at the Surgical-Medical 
Academy in Dresden, he held an autopsy in 1860 on a nineteen- 
year-old girl who had been received in the Dresden City Hospital 
as a typhoid patient and had received treatment at that place. In 



* So-called false trichina? occur in various animals; for example, in the muscula- 
ture and other parts of hare, rats, mice, moles, birds and fish, nematodes are 
sometimes found which, in their external form, possess a certain resemblance to 
trichina, and have consequently been considered as such by uninformed persons. To 
this group belong the ascarids found in the muscle meat of moles, the nlaria larva? 
which occur under the serous coat of the intestines in rats, the round worms in the 
mesentery and liver of white fish, the muscle nematodes in mice, frogs and eels 
(Leuckart); also the larvas of Strongrjlns retortceformis in the liver of hare; the larval 
forms of ascarids in pike and carp; the nlaria larva? under the serous coat of the 
intestines of ducks, and several species of iilaria in moles, hedgehogs, lizards, meal 
worms, etc. For further details, see Johne, " Der Trichinenschauer." 



456 



INVASION DISEASES 




Intestinal trichinae. A, female giving birth to 
young; B, male, X 100 diam. (after Heller). 



making the post mortem 
on the girl, the intestinal 
alterations characteristic 
of typhoid were not found. 
On the other hand, Zenker 
found sexually mature tri- 
chinse in the intestines and 
numerous non-encapsuled 
trichina larvae in the mus- 
cles. Farther investiga- 
tion showed that the girl 
took sick at Christmas 
time after eating pork and 
that the butcher who had 
furnished the meat, as well 
as several of his customers, 
also became ill. Several 
salted pieces of the sus- 
pected meat were found 
which were badly infested 
with trichinae. This de- 
monstration of Zenker, 
which was corroborated 
by Virchow and Leuckart 
by simultaneous experi- 
ments with some of Zen- 
ker's material, furnished 
proof of the surprising fact 
that trichina, which had 
until then been considered 
as a harmless commensal 
organism, was a dangerous 
enemy of man. Leuckart 
fed the musculature of the 
trichinous girl to a dog 
and also fed an intestine 
of the dog, filled with preg- 
nant trichinae, to a hog, 
while Virchow undertook 
a transmission experiment 
by feeding Zenker's ma- 
terial to a rabbit. On 



ANIMAL PARASITES '457 

•precisely the same day Leuckarfc and Virchow demonstrated the 
presence of non-encapsuled muscle trichinae in their experimental 
animals and thereby determined the fact that muscle trichinae 
could be produced by feeding meat which contained trichinae to 
suitable experimental animals* The connecting link which plays 
the most important role in this transmission, the sexually mature 
developmental stage of the parasite in the alimentary canal, was 
already known as a result of the previous researches of these inves- 
tigators (1859). Several days before the above mentioned discovery 
of Leuckart and Virchow, Zenker investigated the intestine of the 
dead servant-girl, which had been preserved in cold storage, and 
demonstrated intestinal trichinae in the first drops of intestinal 
mucus which he examined. 

Soon afterward, the outbreaks of trichinosis in Hettstadt (1863) 
and Hedersleben (1865), in which 500 human beings were affected 
and 129 died, furnished the awful confirmation of the suspicions 
which had been entertained regarding the dangerousness of trichinae. 

It has been asserted that trichinae were introduced into Europe 
from Asia by migrating rats. According to Gerlach, however, 
trichinae were quite probably introduced into Germany in Chinese 
hogs which, during the 20's and 30's of the previous century, were 
used in England and northern Germany for crossing with native 
races in order to increase their fattening power. Trichinosis is said 
to be frequent in China and the small Chinese hogs were utilized 
in Germany, especially in those regions which later formed the 
center of distribution of trichinae in the province and kingdom of 
Saxony. As Gerlach rightfully insists, no trichinae were found in 
Europe previous to the 20's and 30's. This speaks for the correct- 
ness of the assumption of Gerlach against the migrating rat theory, 
since the migrating rats came to Germany about the year 1770. 
Between the 30's and 50's trichinae were found accidentally in human 
cadavers in isolated cases, and once in a hog, a dog and a cat. It 
was not until the 60's that the distribution of trichinae increased and 
became permanently established in infested localities. 

Biology. — After the ingestion of trichinous meat, sexually 
mature, so-called intestinal trichinae develop in the intestines of 
certain mammals and birds, after the muscle parasite has been set 
free from its capsule by the gastric juice. Even within thirty to 
forty-six hours, developed trichinae are found iu the small intestines 
where the males and females copulate before the second day. The 
female trichina, which reaches a length of 3.5 mm. or more, as con- 



458 INVASION DISEASES 

trasted with a length of 1.2 to 1.5 mm. of the male, is viviparous* 
The first embryos are observed within six to seven days after feed- 
ing trichinous meat. The embryos when first born are slender* 
rod-like structures about 0.1 mm. long and 0.0056 to .006 mm. in 
width. The expulsion of the embryos takes place by pressure from 
behind. According to Leuckart, a female trichina gives birth to 
not less than 1,500, and, according to Braun, to from 8,000 to 
10,000. The number of sexually mature males and females in the 
alimentary tract is at first equal ; later the number of males 
diminishes more and more, and at from ten to fourteen days after 
infection one finds almost exclusively female trichinae (J. Vogel). 
From this fact we may conclude that the male trichinae die soon 
after copulation and are digested or carried out with the feces. 
The females have an average life of from five to six weeks, but may 
live for twelve weeks. 

Leuckart, Pagenstecker, et al, have assumed that female 
trichinae give birth to embryos in the lumen of the intestine, and 
that the latter, after a short sojourn in the intestinal mucus, 
penetrate the intestinal wall, enter the peritoneal cavity, thence 
into the thoracic cavity, and finally, following the course of the 
strands of connective tissue, migrate actively into the voluntary 
musculature. Probstmayr, however, emphasized the fact that it is 
not possible to demonstrate trichina embryos in the intestinal 
contents. Moreover, Heitzmann rightfully argued against the 
migration theory, that the embryos at first possess no boring 
apparatus, and that, since they are found in the skeletal muscles 
within a few days, they must have travelled a tremendous distance, 
as compared with their size. Heitzmann, accordingly, considers it 
as certain that the trichina embryos are carried into the blood 
circulation by means of the lymph stream and are caught as emboli 
in the capillaries of the striated muscles. 

The assumption of the translocation of the embryonic trichinae 
by means of the circulating blood was substantiated»by the almost 
simultaneous researches of Cerfontaine, Geisse and Askanazy, but 
especially by the thorough-going experiments which were instituted 
by Graham in Munich under the direction of Hertwig. In harmony 
with the statement of Geisse, Graham found that the intestinal 
trichinae, both males and females, bore into the interior of 
Lieberkiihn's glands with the anterior end of the body, and that 
while in this position the females expel the embryos which are 
carried into the circulating blood through the chyle vessels. 
Graham demonstrated with certainty that the trichina embryos 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



45S 



make their way into the blood through the thoracic duct and are- 
carried into the muscles by the circulating blood. In agreement 
with this finding, we have the occurrence of trichina embryos in the 
lymph glands observed by Virchow and later by Askanazy and! 
Graham, and the finding of trichinae in the blood by Zenker, Col- 
berg, Probstmayr and Fiedler. 

Fig. 137. 



Fig. 136. 





Isolated muscle fiber from a rat, which 
was killed 16 days after the first and 
9 days after the' last feeding with tri- 
chinous meat, X 510 diameters. A 
migrating trichina. The posterior end 
was pulled out of the muscle fiber in 
preparation (after Hertwig). 



Longitudinal section through the muscula- 
ture of a rat, which was killed 19 days 
after the first and 10 days after the last 
feeding. X 310 diameters. Disappear- 
ance of striation in muscle fibers pene- 
trated by trichinae and great multiplica- 
tion and enlargement of the muscle 
nuclei near the trichinae (after Hertwig) . 



Trichina embryos were never seen by Graham in the free 
spaces of the body cavity in which they must first appear if they 
travel by active migration. Whenever they are found in that situa- 
tion, the fact is to be explained by an injury to the thoracic duct or 
blood vessels during exenteration of the peritoneal cavity. 

Graham was able to demonstrate trichina larvae in sections in- 
a small artery and in muscle capillaries. By way of confirmation. 



460 



INVASION DISEASES 



of a view held by Van Beneden, Graham also observed, not infre- 
quently, larvae which passed out of the capillary as a result of 
stasis or hemorrhage. From the capillaries the trichina embryos 
make their w;iy immediately into the sarcolemmal sheath (Fig. 136). 
From the existence of canals which Graham observed behind 
trichinae, it is to be concluded that trichina embiyos are able to 
migrate into the sarcolemmal sheaths. The migration finds its 
natural limit in the tendons and aponeuroses, whereby the accumu- 
lation of trichinae at these points is explained. 



Fig. 138. 



Fig 139. 




Muscle trichina .4 mm. long, 
. 15 days after feeding 

(Leuckart). 



Muscle trichinae, 7 weeks old, in the enlarge- 
ments of the sarcolemmal sheaths 
(Leuckart). 



One observes the first trichina larvse in the musculature within 
seven or eight days after infection of the experimental animals. 
The youngest stages of the muscle trichinae are 0.1 mm. long and 
are therefore of the same size as the trichina embryos at birth. 
This fact argues likewise for the distribution of the trichinae by the 
circulating blood. According to a statement of Gerlach, the greatest 
number of migrating muscle trichinae are to be found between the 
twelfth and twentieth days. 

After the end of the period of migration into the muscle fibers 
the trichina embryos pass into a stage of rest, in order to grow. A 
loss of the transverse striation takes place in the sarcolemmal 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



461 



sheaths which are affected by the invasion of the trichina embryos. 
The muscle fibers assume at first a homogeneous, and later a granu- 
lar character. Furthermore, the muscle nuclei increase in number 
and finally become so large that their transverse diameter about 
equals one-half the diameter of the muscle fibers (Fig. 137). A. 
granular mass lies around the nucleus. 

The growth of the trichinae is complete about three weeks after 
feeding trichinous meat. Their size then reaches 0.8 to 1 mm. 
After their growth is completed, the muscle trichinae assume a 
variously curved and coiled form with simultaneous fusiform dis- 
tension of the sarcolemma (Fig. 139). Daring the course of the 
second month the trichinous muscle fibers collapse in consequence 



Fig. 140. 



Fig. 141. 



mm 




Encapsuled trichina. Trichina 
capsule with persistent sarco- 
lemma and polar fat cells. 
(Leuckart.) 




Primary calcified trichinae with intact 
capsule, X 35 diameters. 



of the resorption of the disintegrated contractile substance. Simul- 
taneously the first appearance of the trichina capsule at the poles 
of the fusiform enlargement is noted. At the end of the third 
month, the trichinae are enveloped by fully developed capsules 
which lie in the long axis of the muscle fibers (Fig. 140). After 
the encapsulation of the trichina larvae in well fed animals, a 
development of fat cells frequently takes place in the collapsed 
sarcolemma immediately around the poles of the trichina cap- 
sules. This polar fat tissue may be so extensive as to render the 
trichinae recognizable by the naked eye (Figs. 143, 144). 

The ultimate fate of muscle trichinae varies. According to 



462 



INVASION DISEASES 



Xieuckart, we may observe incipient calcification of the capsules 
within six months after the animals have been affected (Fig. 142, b). 
According to the same author, a period of 15 or 16 months is 
necessary for the complete impregnation of the capsules with lime 
salts (Fig. 142, d). These statements, however, do not agree with 
the experience of practical meat inspectors. Thus, in two hogs 
9 and 12 months old, Blome found completely calcified trichina 
capsules, the original form of which became again apparent after 
treatment with hydrochloric acid. The trichinae may become visible 
even to the naked eye as a result of complete calcification. 

The process of calcification is usually confined to the cap- 
sules, so that perfectly intact trichinae may be found in capsules 
which are totally calcified. According to Leuckart, the parasites 

Fig. 142. 




a 






Normal calcification of trichina?, in different stages. 

«, intact trichina ; i, calcification of the poles ; c, incomplete calcification, the 

parasite being visible ; d, complete calcification. 



themselves become calcified under normal conditions after a long 
period (ten years or more). It has also been demonstrated that 
muscle trichinae more than ten years of age may possess perfect 
vital powers. Thus Dammann demonstrated that trichinae Ill- 
years old were still capable of producing infestation, and Langer- 
lians demonstrated this power for isolated trichinae in one case in 
which the age of the parasite was probably 31 years. In the case 
reported by Dammann, it was a striking fact that the trichina cap- 
sules were not completely calcified, but were so transparent that 
the trichinae contained in them could be seen. Leuckart expressed 
the opinion that trichinae do not calcify until after the capsule is 
completely incrusted with lime salts. The writer, however, has 
observed primarily calcified trichinae in perfectly transparent cap- 
sules in hogs (Fig. 141). 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



463 



The question has been raised concerning the reason why 
trichina laivae occur only in the musculature and not in other 
organs ; also why it is that trichinae are found in certain striated 
muscles more frequently than in others, and in one, the heart, not 
at all. These facts appear not to harmonize completely with the 
distribution of trichina embryos by means of the circulating 
blood. 

To the first question Graham gave the satisfactory answer that 
the doctrine of the exclusive infestation of the muscles was based 
on the occurrence of encapsuled trichinae. Thudichum has demon- 
strated that in artificially infested animals trichina embryos may be 

Fig. 144. 



Fig. 143. 

lij.lii-Jfi-.'b,;'^': ',.i 




~b 



Hi™ 

1 



-iS 






llll 



Trichinous hog musculature with unusu- Trichinous hog musculature with unusu- 
ally strong development of the polar ally strong development of the polar 
fat tissue, a, trichina capsule ; o, fat fat tissue. X 35 diameters, 
tissue. Natural size. 



found within seven days after infestation in the muscles, lungs, thy- 
mus and lymphatic glands. Yirchow also, and others, as already 
mentioned, have observed the occurrence of trichinae in the 
lymphatic glands and Askanazy observed them in the lungs. If 
later no encapsuled trichinae are found in these locations, this con- 
dition is due, according to the researches of Graham, to the fact 
that trichina embryos are unable to grow except inside of striated 
muscle fibers which are provided with sarcolemma and that in all 
other parts of the body they disintegrate after a short time. Tri- 
chinae die even in the perimysium internum if they do not succeed 
in making their way into the muscle fibers immediately after leav- 



464 INVASION DISEASES 

ing the circulating blood. The fact should be emphasized that 
Graham, contrary to the statement of Chatin, never saw trichinae 
either free or encapsuled in the adipose tissue. For the rest, the 
localization of trichina embryos in the musculature is favored by 
the fact that the newly born trichinae are of about the thickness of 
the muscle capillaries, which, together with those of the retina, are 
the smallest in the body. If, now, the lumen of the capillaries is 
lessened by contractions of the muscles, the trichina embryos, 
which can pass through all other capillaries, excepting only those 
of the lungs, are prevented from moving farther. Trichina embryos 
have been found by Askanazy in the lung capillaries, which may 
be constricted during expiration. 

Encapsuled trichinae have never been found in the muscula- 
ture of the heart. On the other hand, Thudichum observed a free 
trichina between the myocardium and the endocardium, a second 
immediately under the endocardium, and a third between the 
muscle fibers of the myocardium. Graham frequently saw embryos 
in large numbers in badly infested rats between the fibers of the 
myocardium which were partly penetrated and otherwise injured. 
The trichinae, however, always remain outside of the muscle fibers, 
since the sarcolemma is wanting and the disintegrated contractile 
substance floats away. Furthermore, trichinae do not find the 
required conditions for their growth in the myocardium and there- 
fore disintegrate in this organ. One finds embryos inside of small 
inflammatory foci, in which position they die. Moreover, the 
embryos which have made their way into the myocardium migrate 
out into the pericardium, in which they may be present in large 
numbers (Graham). 

Trichinae are not found uniformly distributed in the rest of the 
striated musculature. Certain muscles and groups of muscles are, 
with great regularity, more extensively infested with parasites than 
others. These muscles are characterized as preferred locations of 
the parasites. Among these preferred sites for trichinae, mention 
may be made of the muscular portion of the diaphragm, muscles 
of the larynx and tougue, and to a less degree, the abdominal and 
intercostal muscles. The striking preference of trichina for the 
respiratory muscles is explained by Graham as due to their greater 
richness in blood and by Heitzmann as due to the regular contrac- 
tions and consequent diminution of the lumen of the capillaries. 
Undoubtedly the fact emphasized by Heitzmann plays the chief 
role in entrapping the trichina embryos. The same fact may also 
explain the frequency of trichinae in the tongue of the hog, since 






ANIMAL PARASITES 



465 



this muscular orgau in hogs fed in confinement is used most fre- 
quently of all the muscles which come into function periodically. 

Pathological Encapsulation of Trichince. — Leuckart was the first 
to report the frequent finding of muscle trichinae in hogs, in which 
the connective tissue membranes which arise as a result of reaction 
toward the surrounding tissue become so greatly distended as to 
reach the length of 1 mm. These abnormal proliferations of con- 
nective tissue prevent the formation 
of true transparent chitinous trichina 
capsules and occasion the premature 
death of the enclosed parasite with 
a final deposition of lime salts. Cal- 
cification in such cases may be so 
complete that no trace of the trichina 
itself remains after the lime salts 
have been dissolved by acids. Only 
the peculiar fusiform shape, the size 
not exceeding 0.5 to 1 mm., and the 
position of the structures in the 
muscle fibers demonstrate that we 
are dealing with the remains of tri- 
china (Figs. 145, 184). 



.,> 






Fig. 145. 



\ 



iH 



I 



if3 



z 



mm 






Pathologically altered trichina cap- 
sules with proliferating connective 
tissue membranes and dead worms.. 
From a hog. (Leuckart.) 



Degeneration of Trichina}. — In the 
case mentioned above, Langerhans 
observed alterations in the trichinse 
and their capsules which must be 
considered as phenomena of degen- 
eration. Some of the capsules were 
quite empty ; in others with a per- 
fectly intact wall, recently formed 
connective tissue and adipose tissue 

were found which had originated from included cells. The trichinse 
were disintegrated and entirely or partly resorbed. Langerhans 
believed that he was justified in concluding from his researches 
that a decalcification and even a resorption of the capsules may 
take place after the disappearance of the trichinse. Accordingly, 
contrary to the belief entertained up to this time, an invasion of 
trichinae does not terminate with their calcification, but with their 
complete resorption. 



466 INVASION DISEASES 

Morphology.— Non-calcified, but completely developed, muscle 
trichinae consist of a lemon-shaped, or more nearly spherical, trans- 
parent, double-contoured trichina capsule, and the spirally coiled 
worm. According to Dammann, the length of the trichina capsule 
is about 0.495 mm. ; the width, 0.415 ; and the thickness of the cap- 
sule wall, 0.05 mm. The length of the worm is 0.8 to 1 mm. and its 
greatest breadth, 0.03 to 0.055 mm. In muscles which still possess 
animal heat, one observes tactile movements executed by the anterior 
end of the worm in its capsule. In cold muscles it is possible to 
induce these movements by treatment with warm water or concen- 
trated potash lye, and thereby demonstrate that the muscle trichinae 
are still living. 

With regard to the finer structure of the muscle trichinae the 
following points of diagnostic importance may be mentioned. 
Muscle trichinae are provided with a thin transparent and struc- 
tureless cuticula. The anterior end is pointed, narrower than the 
posterior end, and furnished with a small, circular mouth opening. 
The mouth leads into the pharynx, a light-colored tubular structure, 
which, at its posterior end, passes over into the esophagus, which 
in turn is surrounded by a band of large nucleated cells, the 
so-called cellular body. The posterior end is thickened and pro- 
vided with a cloacal slit. 1 The simple genital sac, which begins 
blindly at the posterior end of the parasite, is rudimentary (Fig. 
148). 

The origin of the trichina capsule has been an unsettled 
question. Virchow attributed the capsules to the sarcolemma ; 
others to the granular tissue which forms around the parasite. 
Hertwig, in co-operation with Graham, undertook researches on 
this disputed question, from which it appears that primarily the 
sarcolemma, with the presence of which, as already mentioned, the 
development of the trichina embryos is essentially connected, but 
•secondarily also the granulation tissue is concerned in the forma- 
tion of the trichina capsule. According to Hertwig and Graham, 
one observes, about four weeks after artificial infection, that the 
granular nucleated contents of the primitive bundles are degene- 
rated. Nuclei and protoplasm together present a glossy, swollen 
appearance. Their mass, especially outside of the spindle-like 
swelling, is considerably diminished. The latter become elongated 
at both ends into fine threads. The swelling and the threads are 
surrounded by a gelatinous sheath which was observed by Leuckart 
and was considered by him to be a thickened sarcolemma (Fig. 139). 
Upon the outside of the gelatinous sheath there is a zone of 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



467 



inflamed connective tissue which is extensively permeated with con- 
nective tissue cells and leucocytes. 

In more advanced stages of capsule formation, one observes the 
disappearance of the degenerated muscle mass in the region of the 
thread-like elongations. The connection with the material which 
surrounds the trichina is broken and in the interior of the gelatin- 
ous strand which originated from the sarcolemma one still observes 



Fig. 146. 




Longitudinal section through the muscu- 
lature of a rat which was killed 37 days 
after the first and 30 days after the last 
feeding, X 310 diameters, a, thick- 
ened sarcolemma; b, remains of disin- 
tegrated muscle substance ; c, prolifer- 
ating connective tissue cells; d, tri- 
china. (After Hertwig.) 



Piece of a trichina capsule isolated by 
teasing, from a rat killed 37 days after 
the first and 30 days after the last feed- 
ing, a-d, as in Fig. 146 ; e, connective 
tissue cells which have wandered into 
the thickened sarcolemma and are 
organizing the trichina capsule. (After 
Hertwig.) 



here and there the remains of nuclei and granular masses which are 
gradually being absorbed. At about this time begins the organiza- 
tion of the definite trichina capsule. Cells migrate out from both 
ends of the inflamed connective tissue and pass into the gelatinous 
layer which surrounds the trichina and its food material. Small 
connective tissue cells with branched processes are to be observed 
in the gelatinous substance and new cells appear also in the detri- 



468 Invasion diseases 

tus with which the trichina is surrounded. They form small groups 
of cells at both poles (Figs. 146, 147). According to Hertwig and 
Graham, it is probable that the new, firmer cyst is secreted by the 
wandering connective tissue cells in the region of the old gela- 
tinous, sheath, for the cysts exhibit stratification marks parallel 
with the surface, and evident cells are still observed between the 
layers in young capsules, while later the cells are replaced with 
granular masses which are entirely wanting in the old capsules. 

In the account as given by Hertwig and Graham, we find an 
explanation of the remarkable lemon-like form of the trichina cyst. 
The wall of the cyst is much thickened at both poles, since the con- 
nective tissue cells penetrate at these points and are hence found 
there in larger numbers than at other points of the periphery. 

Occurrence. — Among the animals used for food, only the hog 
and the dog are infested with trichina. Trichinae occur also in the 
wild hog, cat, bear, fox, badger, martin and pole cat. 

Trichina? may be artificially transmitted to a majority of the 
mammals. Hogs and the small experimental animals of the labor- 
atory, guinea pigs, rabbits, rats and mice, are most susceptible. 
The transmission to cattle, sheep and the horse is more diificult. 
After feeding trichinous material to calves and sheep, there is, as a 
rule, a development of intestinal trichinae only and no muscle 
trichinae. The same is true of birds. Cold blooded animals are not 
susceptible. 

The importance of trichinae lies in their transmissibility to man. 
Man commonly becomes infested by eating pork. Occasionally, 
also, the meat of dogs, cats, foxes, badgers, as well as of bears from 
the zoological gardens,* may lead to the development of trichinae in 
man. The chief source of trichinae in man, however, is the 
domestic hog.f 



* Von Bockum found trichina? also in two hind quarters of bears which were 
introduced from the Caucasus. 

f As contrasted with the numerous outbreaks of trichinosis as a result of eating 
pork (see page 478), there are but few reports concerning trichinosis as a result of 
eating wild hogs, although these animals are infested with trichinae with comparative 
frequency. Eulenberg reports a case of trichinosis in man which was referable to the 
consumption of the meat of wild hogs (Lippspringe, 1876). Furthermore, Wurtz 
mentions two cases of trichinosis in man after eating wild hogs. Finally, in recent 
times an epidemic of trichinosis occurred in Namur as a result of the consumption of 
the meat of wild hogs. The sanitary police has accordingly taken account of the 
occurrence of trichinae in wild hogs by instituting obligatory inspection for trichina 



ANIMAL PARASITES 469 

The hog most probably becomes infested by eating trichinous 
Tats. Both the house rat and the migrating rat are the normal 
liosts of trichina (Leuckart). This statement is substantiated by 
the fact that rats are infested with trichina very frequently, much 
more frequently than the hog. 

Heller states that among 704 rats from twenty-nine localities 
in Saxony, Bavaria, Wurtemburg and Austria, 8.3 per cent, were 
trichinous. Of the rats caught about knackers' establishments, 22.1 
per cent, were infested, 2.3 per cent, of those around abattoirs, and 
0.3 per cent, of those killed in other localities. As a rule, they were 
badly infested. Leisering examined rats from eighteen knackers' 
establishments in the Kingdom of Saxony and found that the rats 
from fourteen of these establishments contained trichinae. Gerlach 
determined that the majority of the rats from stalls of the Hanover 
butchers in which trichinous hogs had been kept were trichinous. 
Adam found two out of eighteen rats from the knackers' establish- 
ments of Augsburg to be trichinous ; Franck found two out of 
thirty-three rats from the Munich slaughterhouse and seven out of 
seventy-seven from the knackers' establishments of Erlangen, Niirn- 
burg and Kronach ; and Fessler found not less than twelve out of 
twenty-four rats from the city abattoir and meat market in Bamberg 
to be infested with trichinae. In Blankenburg, where, until 1868, 
trichinosis occurred in man for many years in succession, it was 
shown by Muller that all rats which were captured about knackers' 
establishments were infested with trichinae. Roll demonstrated 
trichinae in one out of 146 rats in the city of Vienna, seven out of 
forty-seven rats from knackers' establishments and also in twenty 
out of thirty-one rats from the Moravian cities Brtinn, Ostrau and 
Privos. Csokor found 5 per cent, of the rats about the slaughter- 
houses in St. Marx to be trichinous. Trichinae have also been 
found in rats in Denmark and Sweden. Genersich found muscle 
trichinae in ten and intestinal trichinae in two out of 183 rats 
captured in Hungary. The trichinous rats were captured ex- 
clusively in two places (Mills). Billings found trichinae to be 



in all these animals brought to the market. The inspection should preferably take 
place at the locality where the meat is cut up and sold. 

In localities where dogs are slaughtered, these animals must also be inspected for 
trichina? (Leistikow), and, in general, an inspection for trichinae is to be practiced on 
$11 animals which are known to be occasional hosts of.trichina, if they are utilized in 
exceptional cases as human food (bears, badgers, foxes and cats). The inspection of 
slaughtered dogs for trichinae was introduced into the Kingdom of Saxony by 
regulation of July 6, 1901. 



470 INVASION DISEASES 

extraordinarily frequent in rats in Boston. In one of the export 
abattoirs of that city, all of the rats were trichinous ; in a knacker's 
establishment 76 per cent., and in the city of Boston as a whole^ 
10 per cent. 

The frequent occurrence of trichina in rats is explained by the 
gregarious habits of the rats in filthy places, such as knackers' 
establishments and abattoirs, where the offal of trichinous hogs 
becomes accessible to them ; and also by the fact that rats eat the 
bodies of their own species. Hogs are clever rat catchers and this 
fact explains the spontaneous occurrence of trichinosis in hogs. 

In addition to this method of invasion, the infestation of hogs 
as a result of eating other trichinous material, such as trichinous 
pork, plays a subordinate role. On the other hand, the distribu- 
tion of trichina among American hogs is in part to be attributed to 
feeding upon slaughterhouse offal. 

The frequent occurrence of trichinae in rats about knackers' 
establishments furnishes an explanation of the fact that hogs 
fattened by knackers are often all trichinous. 

It is worthy of mention that Blome demonstrated that among 
ten hogs found to be trichinous in the district of Arnsberg during 
a period of twelve years, one-half were brood sows, although such 
animals were not killed except in small numbers. This is undoubt- 
edly due to the fact that brood sows reach the greatest age of all 
hogs and thus have the greatest opportunity for ingesting trichinae. 

For the rest, trichinae occur in the hogs of all countries. Since 
the introduction of inspection for trichinae, these parasites have 
been demonstrated most frequently in northern Germany. They 
are found, however, in the practice of organized trichina inspection, 
in isolated cities of Bavaria, and, moreover, have been demonstrated 
in hogs from Austria-Hungary, Bussia, Italy, France, England, 
Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and with special frequency in hogs 
from North America. 

Statistics concerning the frequency of trichinous hogs are 
accessible only for Germany and America. In Germany the average 
per cent, in different years varies between 0.004 (Kingdom of Sax- 
ony, 1899) and .014 (Kingdom of Prussia, 1899). In the Prussian 
governmental district of Posen, there are certain localities in which 
as high as 1.5 per cent, of the slaughtered hogs are trichinous.* As 
a rule, about 2 per cent, of American hogs are trichinous. 

* In such localities it would be desirable to have a regulation that in all places in 
which trichinous hogs were found the rats should be destroyed as far as possible and 
their bodies burned. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 471 

In Germany the frequency of the occurrence of trichinosis in 
hogs has diminished in the course of the last twenty years. This 
encouraging fact may be regarded as a result of trichina inspection, 
through which the trichinous hogs are recognized and their meat 
rendered innocuous. The following figures may serve to indicate 
the diminution in the numbers of trichinae in native hogs, the 
number of trichinous hogs being indicated by a per cent.: 

(a) Kingdom of Prussia.— 1878 to 1885, 0.061 to .048 ; 1888 to 
1892, .033 to .043 ; 1896, .021 ;■ 1899, .014. 

'(6) Kingdom of Saxony.— 1891, 0.014; 1895, .012; 1899, .004. 

(c) Berlin.— 1883 to 1893, 0.035 to.064 ; 1893 to 1899, .022 to .015. 

Frequency of the Occurrence of Trichinae in Foreign Hogs. 

(a) United States of America. — According to Ziirn and others, in 
American pork imported before 1891, the following percentages were 
found to be trichinous: In Ludwigshafen, 1 per cent.; Hamburg, 
1.26 ; Eostock, 2 ; Barel, 2 ; Kiel, 2.36 ; Gottingen, 3 ; Bamberg, 3 j 
Gothenburg, 4 ; Mailand, 4.8 ; Elbing, 5 ; Heilbronn, 8.* 

At the instigation of the Chicago Board of Health, Drs. Belfield 
and Atwood examined 100 hogs for the presence of trichinae 
in 1868 and of this number 8 were trichinous. According to Salmon, 
18,889 hogs were examined for the presence of trichinae, and of this 
number 517, or 2.7 per cent., were found to be infested. Of the 
999,554 hogs inspected in 1900, 19,448, or 1.95 per cent., were found 
to be trichinous. The number of trichinous hogs, however, varied 
in different localities between 0.28 and 16.3 per cent. According to 
a note in the Berliner Tierarztl. Wochenschrift, in 1890, 10 per cent, 
of the emale hogs and 14.87 per cent, of the male hogs in the city 
of Boston were found to be trichinous, while on an average from 2 
to 3 per cent, of the hogs raised further inland were infested with 
trichinae. Finally, among 88 hogs imported from America into 
Dresden in 1881, 14, or 15.9 per cent., were trichinous. 

(b) Demarh. — Krabbe, during the years 1866 to 1892, demon- 
strated the presence of trichinae in 36 Danish herds of hogs. In 
Hamburg, 26 trichinous hogs of Danish origin were found in 1886, 
23 in 1887 and 15 in 1895. Moreover, in 1895 trichinae were 
repeatedly found in pieces of Danish pork, especially in loin roasts 
and hog necks in Hamburg and other German cities. 



. * For an account of the controversy concerning trichinae in American pork, see 
Stiles, Trichinosis in Germany, Bureau of Animal Industry, Bui. 30. — Translator, 



472 INVASION DISEASES 

(c) Austria-Hungary. — The reports on meat inspection for the 
Kingdom of Saxony contain interesting data concerning the occur- 
rences of trichinae in Austrian and Hungarian hogs. Among 
Austrian and Hungarian fat hogs the following numbers were found 
trichinous : in 1892, 11 ; in 1893, 9 ; in 1894, 9. 

In 1895, 0.024 per cent, of the hogs introduced from Hungary 
into Saxony were found trichinous. Moreover, trichinae have 
frequently been demonstrated in Saxony in hams and salamiwurst 
of Austrian origin. 

(d) Russia. — According to Nebykow, 0.25 per cent, of the hogs 
inspected in St. Petersburg in 1882 were trichinous and J 2 of those 
inspected in 1883. In Moscow the frequency of trichinosis in hogs 
varied during the years 1889 and 1892 between .07 and .17 per cent. 
In Kharkov in 1875, .12 per cent, of the inspected hogs were found to 
be trichinous, and in Kalisch, according to Fedecki, during the 
years 1882 to 1885, .16 per cent, were trichinous. 

(e) Sweden. — Among 35,987 hogs examined in Stockholm, 42 
were infested with trichinae. Moreover, trichinae have been repeat- 
edly found in Hamburg in pork imported from Sweden. 

The occurrence of trichinae in foreign countries is also demon- 
strated by trichinosis, which is observed in the majority of the 
European countries, especially Belgium,* Denmark,t England, 
France, % Holland, Italy, Spain, Austria, § Russia, || Sweden, the 
former Danube principalities, also in North and South America, 
Egypt, Algiers, East Africa, Syria,^| India and Australia. 



*In Herstal, near Liittich, 47 persons were seriously affected with trichinosis in 
1893 and 12 died. 

f Friis collected 27 cases of trichinosis in man in Denmark with a fatal attack irt 
two cases. 

1 In 1878 a small epidemic of trichinosis was observed in France (Braun). 

§InTeplitz, in 1894,63 persons were affected with trichinosis and 50 persons 
during the same year in Freudenthal. Moreover, during 1894 the report showed the 
affection of 31 persons with trichinosis in Bohemia with a fatal attack in 12 cases. In 
.1897 a small, but, nevertheless, serious, epidemic of trichinosis occurred in Briix and 
a more extensive one with a fatal attack in 5 cases in Iglau. 

I During the years 1889 to 1891, in the governmental district of Bromberg, 11 
persons were affected with trichinosis, after eating unsmoked sausage from Russian 
Poland. In 1895 an outbreak of trichinosis occurred in Opatow from eating Russian 
meat. 

If On account of the occurrence of trichinous hogs in Syria, the Italian Govern- 
ment has prohibited the introduction of hogs and pork from the Ottoman Empire. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 473 

Can Sucking Pigs be Infested with Trichince, ? — In countries 
'which have introduced obligatory inspection for trichinae, sucking 
pigs, as a rule, are also subjected to compulsory inspection for this 
parasite. Protests against such inspection have repeatedly been 
made by interested parties, accompanied by the statement that 
trichinae do not occur in sucking pigs. 

The experiments of Gerlach throw light on this question. 
Gerlach demonstrated that trichinae are not congenital. Two 
female rabbits which Gerlach had fed on trichinous meat gave birth 
to young twenty-two and twenty-eight days after infection. The 
young animals were free from trichinae in spite of the fact that 
large numbers of freshly migrated .trichinae were found in the 
mothers. On the other hand, Gerlach found that pigs may become 
infested with trichinae at a very early age. He placed two eight- 
weeks-old pigs with an old hog which had previously been infested 
with trichinae and which within a period of several days had been 
fed twice, each time outside of the stall, with trichinous meat. Both 
pigs were killed five weeks after the second feeding of the old hog. 
It was found that one was slightly infested with muscle trichinae. 
Probably the pig had ingested trichinae which had been expelled 
in the feces of the old hog along with undigested pieces of muscle. 

But, even if we disregard these experiments of Gerlach, com- 
pulsory inspection of sucking pigs is justified, because the ingestion 
of trichinous material may take place by some accident or other 
soon after birth and the development of trichinae capable of infest- 
ing other hogs may take place in pigs which are only a few weeks 
old ; for muscle trichinae are capable of transmission when they 
reach the size of 0.5 to 0.75 mm., or within 16 to 20 days after the 
ingestion of trichinous material (page 479). 

Frequency of Trichince in Dogs. — Among 1,167 dogs slaughtered 
in Chemnitz during the four years 1897-1900, 13, or 1.11 per cent., 
were infested with trichinae (Tern pel). 

Extensive and Slight and Repeated Invasions. — Trichinae 
may occur so sparingly in the body of the hog that even several 
dozen microscopic preparations from the most frequent seat of 
trichinae will disclose only a single parasite. On the other hand, 
hogs have been found in the practice of meat inspection which were 
completely permeated with trichinae. 

As a rule, the trichinae in hogs spontaneously infested are all 
in the same stage of development, which points toward the single 



474: INVASION DISEASES 

ingestion of trichinous material. There are exceptions to this usual 
finding, in which, on account of the various developmental stages of 
the trichinae, it is necessary to assume repeated invasions. 

The following statistics from the city meat inspection in Berlin 
may serve to illustrate the above-mentioned conditions : 



Year 


Trichinous 


Extensively 


Moderately 


Slightly 


liogs 


infested 


infested 


infested 


1889-90 


292 


101 


81 


110 


1891-2 


254 


67 


85 


102 


1893-4 


122 


39 


34 


49 


1894-5 


136 


63 


27 


46 


1895-6 


158 


49 


41 


68 


1896-7 


192 


108 


22 


62 



Among the hogs which were only slightly infested, there were 
always several in which, despite extensive investigation, only a 
single trichina could be found. 

Of the 192 trichinous hogs reported in the year 1896-7, 171 
showed living trichinae only, 13 a few calcified trichinae, and 8 botk 
living and calcified trichinae. 

The Number of Trichince in Badly Infested Hogs. — According to 
Xieuckart, trichinae are frequently found to the extent of 1,500 per 
gram of muscle. Schreyer counted the trichinae in one gram of 
musculature from various parts of the body of the hog and esti- 
mated the total number of trichinae in a hog which weighed 174 
pounds (after subtracting 50 per cent, of the weight for fat tissue, 
bones, tendons, etc.) as 63,162,000. Schumann and Ludwig calcu- 
lated the number of trichinae in a similar manner in the case of a 
badly infested hog (3,961 trichinae per gram) as 158,400,000. 

Diagnosis. — -There is no other method for the certain identifi- 
cation of trichinae than microscopic investigation. A slight mag- 
nification, however, is sufficient for this purpose. The proper 
magnification is 40 diameters. With this magnification one plainly 
observes the encapsuled muscle trichinae as lemon-shaped, oval or 
spherical structures, recognizes the transparent double-contoured 
wall, the characteristic trichina capsule, and the spirally-coiled or 
pretzel-shaped worm. With the above-named magnification, the 
recognition of the migrating and resting, but not coiled, trichinae is 
more difficult. However, the granular cloudiness of the muscle 
fibers in cases of fresh invasion by still uncoiled muscle trichinae 
arouses suspicion of the presence of the parasites, which may be 






ANIMAL PARASITES 



475 



demonstrated with certainty by the use of a stronger magnifica- 
tion. 

Franck and Tiemann recommended the examination of prepara- 
tions by means of hand lenses with a magnification of ten dia- 
meters. Experienced inspectors are able to recognize trichinae in 
pork, even with this magnification (Fig. 149). A magnification of 
40 to 50 diameters, however, at least for less experienced inspectors, 
is much more reliable. Greater magnifications than 40 to 50 dia- 
meters are unnecessary and also unsatisfactory, since the greater 
the magnification the more time required for examining the slides. 

Fig. 148. 



Fig. 149. 





Trichinous musculature,. 
X 10 diameters. 



Developed muscle trichina after removal from the 
capsule, with intestine, genital organ and lateral 
line (Leuckart). 



Kafitz recommends projection in the place of direct micro- 
scopic examination of trichina preparations. Inspection by means- 
of projection is simpler and more reliable in the case of fresli 
meat than direct examination. Until further experience is had, it 
may be recommended at any rate for use in the further examina- 
tion of samples already inspected. 

Calcified trichinae, as well as the still incompletely developed 
muscle trichinae, offer some difficulties in making a reliable diagno- 
sis. Finally, the recognition of trichinae becomes difficult if it is 
necessary to demonstrate them not in fresh meat, but in preserved 
pork, especially smoked hams. For the better recognition of 
trichinae in such material, Duncker recommends treating the sam- 



476 



INVASION DISEASES 



pies of muscles for several minutes with dilute acetic acid. In 
American hams preserved according to the newer methods, in which 
the trichinae are only slightly differentiated from the musculature, 
which becomes transparent during the process of preservation, I 
have found the addition of water to be advantageous. 

Differential Diagnosis. — Without a careful examination, other 
objects can be easily confused with encapsuled and still uncalcified 

Fig. 151. 
Fig. 150. 




-Encapsuled muscle trichina with incipient polar 
calcification (Perls). X 130 diameters. 



Vinegar eel. 

trichinae. Even Miescher's sacs, which are so frequently observed 
in muscles, have such distinct characters that it is impossible to 
mistake intact and uncalcified specimens. The same is true of 
muscle distomes (page 404). With reference to the much more 
important differentiation of calcified trichinae from other calcified 
depositions in the musculature, I must refer to the section on 
"So-called Calcareous Concretions in the Musculature of Hogs" 
(page 539 ff.). 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



477 



Fig. 152. 



f 



Among the accidental kinds of contamination of pork which have 
already led to confusion with unencapsuled trichinae, special men- 
tion should be made of the vinegar eel, Anguillula aceti. This nema- 
tode may appear in the preparations if the samples of muscle 
have been preserved in vinegar or unclean vessels. The vinegar 
eel is about twice as long and considerably slenderer than the fully 
developed muscle trichina, and, moreover, is pointed at both ends 
(Fig. 151). Vinegar eels, moreover, lie between the muscle fibers 
and, as a rule, exhibit active movements. Wallmann, in a prepara- 
tion for trichina inspection, found an actively-moving nematode 
between the muscle fibers, which was pointed at the anterior and 
posterior ends like the vinegar eel, but was shorter and broader 
than the latter. George demonstrated 
a nematode between the muscle fibers 
in the preparation which could be dis- 
tinguished from a migrating trichina 
by the blunt character of the oral end 
and which possessed great resemblance 
to an embryo of Strongylus paradoxus. 
Samples for trichina inspection may 
be easily contaminated by the embryos 
and eggs of this parasite, after making 
an incision into the lungs when these 
organs are infested with S. paradoxus 
(Fig. 152, Tiemann). 

Khabditides (larvae of Strongylidae), 
according to reports of Leuckart and 
Ziirn, have frequently been mistaken 
for trichinae. These undeveloped nema- 
todes live in decomposing substances. The rhabditides are distin- 
guished from trichinae, aside from their internal anatomy, by the 
pointed posterior end. Moreover, like the vinegar eel, they likewise 
lie between muscle fibers. 

Merkel found in three instances, in the eye muscles of hogs, 
nematodes of the length aud thickness of female intestinal trichinae 
with pointed oral end and sucking disks on the posterior end of the 
body. These worms, which were not identified more accurately, lay 
extended between the bundles of muscles. 

Among the accidental kinds of contamination, we should doubt- 
less mention also the " Haplococcus reticulatus " found byZopf in 
1884, between the muscle fibers in a large number of pork sam- 
ples and supposedly belonging to the Myxomycetes. According to 




Eggs and larva? of Strongylus 
paradoxus in a preparation for 
trichina inspection. (Prom a 
photograph.) X 35 diameters. 



478 INVASION DISEASES 

Moller, the haplococci of Zopf are nothing more than spores of 
X/ycopodium. Finally, in conserved pork, masses of tyrosin crystals 
may appear which have likewise been mistaken for trichinae, 
especially with the calcified individuals (p. 545). 

Judgment. — By eating trichinous pork human beings may con- 
tract trichinosis, which, under certain circumstances, is a very seri- 
ous, if not fatal, disease. The mortality in trichinosis in man 
varies. It may, however, reach from 10 to 40 per cent. Trichinous 
pork must, therefore, be considered as a highly dangerous food 
material.* 

Symptoms of Trichinosis in Man. — Trichinosis exhibits two 
stages. The first is caused by the penetration of the female intes- 
tinal trichinae into the mucous membrane of the intestines and is 
characterized by symptoms of irritation which vary, according to the 
number of trichinae which have been ingested, from a catarrh to an 
inflammation of the intestines. Patients show a partial or complete 
loss of appetite, indisposition, pains in the body, diarrhea, and 
occasionally vomiting. According to Gerlach, a loss of appetite and 
nausea appear within twelve hours in cases of extensive invasion. 
The second stage begins, as a rule, after three weeks, but may occur 
during the second week or not until the fourth week after the 
ingestion of trichinous meat. This stage is characterized by fever, 
lassitude, violent muscular pains, pains in the eye, difficulty 
in swallowing, hoarseness, pains felt in masticating, edema of the 
eyelids, face (in acute cases), and of the extremities. Recovery 
begins with the encapsulation of the trichinae. Strange to say, 
children are less violently affected than adults (Penkert, Holz- 
liausen). 



* For example, extensive epidemics of trichinosis appeared in Hettstadt in 
1863 (168 cases, 28 deaths); Hanover, 1864-5 (more than 300 cases); Hedersleben, 
1865 (337 cases, 101 deaths); Potsdam, 1866 (164 cases); Greifswald, 1866 (140 cases, 1 
death); Magdeburg, 1866 (240 cases, 16 deaths); Halberstadt, 1867 (100 cases, 20 
deaths); Stassfurt 1869 (more than 100 cases); Wernigerode, 1873 (100 cases, 1 death); 
Chemnitz (194 cases, 3 deaths); Linden, 1874 (400 cases, 40 deaths); Niederzwehren, 
near Kassel, 1877 (one-half of the inhabitants); Diedenhofen, 1877 (99 cases, 10 
deaths); Leipzig 1877 (134 cases, 2 deaths); Ermsleben, 1883 (403 cases, 66 deaths); 
Strenz-Neuendorf, 1884 (86 cases, 12 deaths); Kelbra-Altendorf, 1895 (242 cases, 1 
death), etc. Smaller epidemics of trichinosis occurred in Stollberg, 1860; Plauen, 
1861-2; Calbe and Magdeburg, 1862; Dessau, 1864; Gorlitz, 1885; Erlangen, 1870; 
Northumberland, 1871; Gottingen, 1871; Stettin, 1877; and Hof, 1878. Johne states 
that in Saxony during the years 1860 to 1889, not less than 109 epidemics of trichi- 
nosis occurred with 3,402 cases and 79 deaths, a mortality of 2.3 per cent. 



ANIMAL PAEASITES 479 

Symptoms of disease are not observed in trichinous hogs, even 
when the animals are badly infested (Kiihn). Penkert reports con- 
cerning the hog which caused the epidemic of trichinosis in 
Hedersleben that it was in such fine condition that it was exhibited 
for show purposes. 

Not all meat, however, which contains trichinae is invariably or , 
to the same degree dangerous or injurious to the health of the con- 
sumer. Reinhard asserts, on the basis of an interesting calculation, 
that in the Kingdom of Saxony during the years 1860-1875, more 
than 900 trichinous hogs were consumed without any striking 
symptoms of the disease having been produced. During this period 
there were 39 epidemics of trichinosis in the Kingdom of Saxony 
with 1,267 cases and 19 deaths. In all, however, during the same 
period, 6,959,964 hogs were slaughtered, among which, according to 
the average ratio of 1:7000, nearly 1,000 trichinous hogs must have 
been found. Not more than 4 out of every 100 trichinous hogs 
caused trichinosis in man. 

The dangerous character of trichinous meat depends (1) on the 
number of trichinae present in the meat ; (2) on their developmental 
stage ; and (3) on the form in which the meat is eaten. 

1. As a rule, according to all experience, isolated trichinae in 
pork are incapable of producing genuine trichinosis. Bollinger says 
that where only a small number of parasites are present, the disease 
is never serious. On the other hand, Piitz is of the opinion that 
pork only slightly infested with trichinae, while not producing 
epidemics, may, nevertheless, cause serious disease in isolated cases 
if the meat of a whole hog is gradually consumed by a few persons. 

That the invasion of human beings by trichinae frequently 
passes by unobserved is shown by the incidental finding of trichinae 
in persons who have died of other diseases. Fiedler demonstrated 
trichinae in from 2 to 2.5 per cent, of the cadavers in Dresden; 
Wagner, in from 2 to 3 per cent, of those in Leipzig ; Eudnew, in 
1.5 to 2 per cent, of those in St. Petersburg ; and Turner, in 1 to 2 
per cent, of those in Scotland. 

2. Transmission to man occurs with certainty only in the case 
of well-developed muscle trichinae provided with capsules. Migrat- 
ing trichinae are harmless and resting trichinae are not able to 
undergo further development in the new host except when the 
sexual organs are differentiated. This differentiation occurs in 
resting trichinae when a body length of from 0.5 to. 75 mm. has been 
reached (Fiedler). It has been shown, however, by feeding experi- 
ments, that such muscle trichinae with non-encapsulated trichinae 



4180 INVASION DISEASES 

embryos, even when they have reached this size, are in great part 
digested in the stomach of their new host. 

Furthermore, trichinae which become pathologically encapsuled 
and calcified (page 465), as a rule disintegrate completely, as con- 
trasted with parasites which are included in normally calcified 
capsules. 

3. The form in which the meat is eaten is of greatest importance 
in the transmission of trichinae, for trichinae which are contained in 
meat may be killed by external influences and certain methods of 
preparation. Desiccation kills trichinae in a short time ; likewise, 
salting. According to Fiirstenberg, pickling for ten days is suffi- 
cient to kill trichinae in small pieces of meat. In larger pieces of 
meat this result, according to Leuckart, takes place after treatment 
with salt for four weeks without the addition of water. Gerlach, 
however, found living parasites along with shrunken specimens in 
meat which had lain in pickling brine for two months. According 
to Blasius, trichinae in thin layers of meat are killed within six 
weeks by pickling, while in thicker pieces they are not destroyed 
until after five months. Colin determined that a slight salting does not 
kill the trichinae, but that they gradually die under the influence of 
extensive and complete penetration of the salt. In pieces of meat 
thoroughly penetrated with salt, the trichinae near the surface die 
within fourteen days, while in the deeper-lying parts they are not 
killed until after from four to six weeks. In sausages the death of 
trichinae, even in a weak salt solution, is said to take place within 
fourteen days on account of the more rapid and complete diffusion 
of salt. Ordinary smoking, particularly in the case of large pieces 
of meat, is quite insufficient for killing trichinae (Fiedler). This 
explains why so-called smoked sausage and raw hams are rather 
frequently the cause of trichinosis. Eefrigeration, even when 
applied for a long period and at a low temperature, is absolutely 
ineffective. Thus, Kuhn found that trichinous meat kept in a 
refrigerator for seven weeks was still infested with living worms. 
On the other hand, according to Bouley and Gibier, trichinae in 
hams died when the hams were subjected to a temperature of — 15° to 
— 20° C. An absolutely certain means of killing trichinae is found 
in the application of high temperatures. According to Leuckart, 
trichinae die at a temperature of 62° to 70° C, since at this temper- 
ature their albumen is coagulated. High temperatures, however, 
penetrate but slowly, and not until after several hours, into the 
interior of large pieces of meat (see " Boiling and Steam Steriliza- 
tion "). Trichinous meat can not be regarded as harmless until the 



ANIMAL PARASITES 481 

cut surface has assumed a uniformly white or light-gray color, for 
this coloration is evidence that the meat, even in the central layers, 
has been heated to a temperature of at least 60° to 70° C. 

We must attribute to the influence of desiccation as a result of 
thorough pickling (injection of brine by means of syringes) the fact 
that trichinae contained in American pork are frequently dead, as 
shown by efforts to revive them and by feeding experiments. 

Trichinae are not killed by decomposition. They have been 
found alive in decomposing meat after a period of 100 days (Ziirn). 

The history of trichina epidemics shows that they are caused 
exclusively by the consumption of raw or partly cooked meat. The 
majority of these epidemics have occurred in the Province and 
Kingdom of Saxony, where the consumption of raw or partly broiled 
meat is a very common custom. In southern Germany, on the other 
hand, outbreaks of trichinosis are exceedingly rare, although 
trichinous hogs are brought to market and sold in that region.* 
The latter is to be assumed as true, since many hogs are sold in the 
north of Germany for points in southern Germany, and it is, more- 
over, proved beyond any doubt by the positive finding of trichinae 
in several Bavarian cities (for example, Hof and Niirnberg), as a 
result of the trichina inspection which has been established even for 
native hogs.f While, therefore, outbreaks of trichinosis as a result 
of eating pork are rare in Wurtemburg, Baden, Alsace-Lorraine and 
the greater part of Bavaria and Hessen, it is to be ascribed solely 
to the fact that in these States the consumption of raw meat is 
unknown. £ In fact, the custom prevails there of eating all meat 



* Similar conditions prevail in foreign countries. With the exception of 
northern Germany, there is nowhere in force in the world a general trichina 
inspection, despite the fact that trichinous hogs occur everywhere (pages 

471-472) . 

f In Niirnberg, during the period 1880 to 1890, 457 hogs were found infested, 
with trichinae. 

\ Bollinger reports from Bavaria that in that country eight epidemics with- 
ninety-seven cases and four deaths occurred between the years 1853 and 1879. 
According to Wasserfuhr, during the 80's, thirty isolated cases of trichinosis 
with two deaths occurred in Bavaria. These cases, however, were restricted 
exclusively to the three Fraukish provinces which border on Saxony, Thiiringen 
and Hessen, and which, in contrast with the rest of Bavaria, have the habit of 
eating raw or half-cooked meat. An isolated case of trichinosis which recently 
occurred in Bavaria is very interesting. In Lauf, a butcher was violently 
affected with trichinosis two days after eating raw pork while making brat- 
wurst. Subsequent investigation showed extensive infestation with trichinse in 
the pieces of meat still to be found. Two-thirds of the meat, however, had 
already been eaten in a cooked condition without causing any harm. 



482 INVASION DISEASES 

foods in a thoroughly cooked condition. The favorable effect of 
only a slight degree of heat is shown by the fact that, according to 
Leuckart, in the epidemics in Hettstiidt and Hedersleben, 37 and 43 
per cent., respectively, of the persons affected after eating raw meat 
died, while only 10 per cent, died of those who ate prepared meat. 
Similar conditions were found by Holzhausen in the epidemic of 
trichinosis in Strenz-Neuendorf, in which 86 persons were affected 
and 12 died. The majority of those affected had eaten raw meat, 
and of the 12 who died, 10 had eaten raw and two partially broiled 
meat. 

Method of Procedure with the Meat op Trichinous Hogs. — 
In Section 367 7 of the Criminal Law Statutes, which forbids the sale 
of trichinous meat, is found the fundamental principle of legal regu- 
lations that all meat affected with trichinae, whether the parasites 
occur sparingly or abundantly, whether they are still undeveloped, 
fully developed, or already calcified, is to be excluded from the mar- 
ket. The great danger which lies in eating trichinous meat suffi- 
ciently explains these legal regulations, especially since the total 
number of hogs annually found to be trichinous is so small that the 
hog raisers may easily bear the loss. It has been proposed that pork 
should be admitted to the market if during an investigation of 
several dozen preparations the presence of only a few trichinae was 
found. It may be objected to this proposition, however, that on 
account of the great fecundity of female trichinae the matter can 
not be considered as ending with the invasion of a single trichina. 
Furthermore, the cases of hogs which are infested with a single 
trichina are so rare that an exception in favor of these hogs would 
be without practical value. 

In rendering judgment on calcified trichinae, it is to be consid- 
ered that trichinae which appear to be completely calcified may still 
be quite capable of producing infestation (page 462). 

From a scientific standpoint there would certainly be no objec- 
tion against admitting to the market partly cooked or steamed meat. 
I Encapsuled trichinae have never yet been observed in the vis- 

cera. The viscera, however, are treated as " meat " in order to pre- 
vent the transmission of trichinae by means of parts of muscles 
which may accidentally remain connected with the viscera (for 
example, portions of the diaphragm attached to the liver). 

The intestines of trichinous hogs in case of fresh invasion 
may contain intestinal trichinae, and for this reason are to be 
excluded from the market. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 483 

Official Regulations Concerning the Method of Procedure with the Meat 

of Trichinous Hogs. 

(a) Kingdom of Prussia. — By a ministerial decree of January 
18, 1876, concerning trichinous hogs and meat products, the follow- 
ing utilization of these materials is permitted on the basis of an 
opinion of the Scientific Deputation for the Medical Service : 

1. The skinning and removal of the bristles, as well as the free 
utilization of the skin and bristles. 

2. Simple rendering of the fat and the free use thereof.* 

3. The utilization of parts suitable for the preparation of soap 
or glue. 

4. The chemical utilization of the whole body. 

(b) Kingdom of Saxony.— -In the Kingdom of Saxony, in addition 
to the above-named uses, it is also permitted that the meat of 
slightly trichinous hogs may be admitted to market under declara- 
tion after it has been cooked or thoroughly pickled. The cooking 
is to be considered as sufficient when it is done either in a steam 
cooking apparatus in pieces of not more than 5 kg. weight, in such 
a manner that the interior of the pieces is kept at a temperature 
of at least 80° 0. for a period of 30 minutes, or when pieces of 
not more than 3 kg. weight are cooked in open kettles for at least 
3 hours. The pickling process must be continued for at least 4 
weeks. 

Trichina Inspection. 

States With Trichina Inspection. — In all of the government 
districts of the Kingdom of Prussia, with the exception of Danzig, 
Koslin, Stralsund, Schleswig and Hohenzollern ; also in the whole 
Kingdom of Saxony, the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach ; Duchies Anhalt, Brunswick, Oldenburg, 
Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, and in the Principalities of Lippe-Schaum- 
burg, Reuss, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sonders- 
hausen, trichina inspection — that is, the microscopic examination of 
pork — has been introduced as an obligatory measure for the pro- 
tection of human health. In the Prussian government districts 
mentioned as exceptions, as well as in the Grand Duchies of Meck- 

* The free use of the fat of trichinous hogs, as shown by Schmidt-Mulheim, as 
■well as that of the fat of measly hogs, stands in opposition to the decisions of 
the Imperial Court of February 3, 1888, and March 25, 1884. The sale of such fat 
must take place under declaration. 



484 INVASION DISEASES 

lenburg-Schwerin and in the Principality of Lippe-Detmold, there 
is only a partial inspection for trichinae, since the introduction of 
this inspection is left to the discretion of the various local author- 
ities. 

Objections to Inspection for Trichina. — From various sides 
objection has been raised against trichina inspection that this prac- 
tice is very expensive and that its object is not fully secured, since 
outbreaks of trichinosis occur in spite of it. In fact, it has been 
objected that it is highly disadvantageous on the ground that the 
public remains in a sense of false security and is encouraged in 
continuing the bad practice of eating raw meat. It is alleged that 
the only effective precaution would be found in checking that prac- 
tice by means of official instructions concerning the dangers of eat- 
ing raw meat. General Physician Wasserfuhr has from the begin- 
ning stubbornly fought against the introduction of obligatory 
trichina inspection and even a few years ago maintained that not a 
single case was known in which a human being had been affected 
with trichinosis after eating well-cooked or smoked trichinous pork. 
He asserted that inspection for trichinae, which cost Berlin $125,000 
annually, was of advantage only to those people who did not 
observe simple precautions. 

Review or the Objections. — It must be admitted that thor- 
ough cooking is a satisfactory precaution against trichinosis. This 
is shown by the example of southern Germany and all other coun- 
tries in which pork is admitted to the market without previous 
microscopic examination. It is also to be recommended that the 
authorities from time to time should call attention to the dangers 
which may be connected with eating raw meat in spite of the exist- 
ing meat and trichina inspection.* 



* The Royal Police President at Berlin publishes annually, the following notice: 
"As experience has frequently shown, the public does not yet sufficiently 
realize that even when a well organized and reliable meat inspection exists for all 
slaughterhouses in a given locality, nevertheless, partly from places in which meat 
inspection has been introduced, but is not required for all slaughterhouses, partly from 
places without meat inspection, and partly also by an evasion of existing regulations, 
pork not at all or imperfectly inspected may find 'its way to the market and great 
danger may thus arise to the life and health of the consumers. 

"An earnest warning is therefore issued against the consumption of all raw pork 
and attention is further called to the fact that a thorough cooking or roasting of 
pieces of meat and of preparations of pork (meat, blood, and liver sausages, meat 
croquettes, etc.), is sufficient to destroy the trichinas which may be present and 



ANIMAL PARASITES 485 

On the other hand, however, the authorities have to reckon 
"with a custom which is deeply rooted among the common people 
and have, therefore, to make sure that in localities where the con- 
sumption of raw or insufficiently cooked meat is a common custom, 
as in most places in northern Germany, trichinous hogs are not 
allowed on the market, and this can not be accomplished by the 
cheap advice " help yourself," but only by obligatory examination 
of all slaughtered hogs.* One must to a certain extent be blind to 
the truth if he refuses to recognize the good which has been 
accomplished by the introduction of trichina inspection in the dis- 
covery of thousands of trichinous hogs. Since the life of a human 
being in civilized countries is considered invaluable, it can not be 
urged as an argument against the practice of this inspection that 
the identification of a trichinous hog costs on an average several 
thousand marks. 

With regard to the above-mentioned argument against the 
beneficial action of trichina inspection, Bollinger appropriately 
remarks : " Even if the objection may be raised against obligatory 
trichina inspection that it does not protect man with absolute cer- 
tainty against trichinosis, nevertheless it shares the fate of all other 
prophylactic hygienic measures, including even the consumption of 
cooked and fried pork." 

It is, unfortunately, an undisputed fact that, despite the exist- 
ence of trichina inspection, outbreaks of trichinosis occur among 
human beings. In all these cases, however, it has been shown that 
it is not the system which is at fault, but merely the practice of it. 
In all cases, either a gross neglect of duty on the part of the inspec- 
tor or a fatal error (interchange of samples, substitution of false 
samples, false stamping, etc.) have been proved. These cases always 
concerned hogs in which the trichinae, as shown by subsequent 
inspection of such parts of the meat as were still to be had, could 
have been easily demonstrated by giving proper attention to the 
matter. 



thereby to exclude all danger of injury to health. In order to make possible the 
thorough cooking of larger, thicker pieces (ham, neck roasts, etc.), it is necessary to 
make deep incisions at intervals of about 8 cm. into the meat to allow the heat to 
penetrate sufficiently into the deeper portions of the meat." 

* As a warning to those who are opposed to a trichina inspection, the follow- 
ing unfortunate occurrence may be related: In Linden, near Hanover, the micro- 
scopic investigation of pork which was introduced in the year 1866, after the great 
epidemic of trichinosis in Hanover, was allowed to lapse. As a result of this there 
occurred the epidemic of trichinosis of 1874, in which more than 400 persons were 
effected and over 40 died. 



486 INVASION DISEASES 

If the objection is raised to the reliability of trichina inspection 
that it might easily happen that isolated trichinae would escape the 
most careful inspection, the theoretical possibility of such an occur- 
rence must be admitted, but the fact should be emphasized that 
such isolated trichinae, according to all our experience, are not 
capable of producing trichinosis in man. Gerlach has shown that 
in meat the consumption of which could produce only slight cases 
of trichinosis, the trichinae can be detected by an ordinary 
microscopic examination. Furthermore, in my opinion, the example 
of Berlin shows most clearly the value of a well organized trichina 
inspection. A city system of trichina inspection has been in force 
there for the past twenty years. During this time not only no 
epidemic of trichinosis has occurred, but not even a single case of 
trichinosis as a result of eating meat which was inspected in that 
city; and this, too, although the number of hogs annually slaugh- 
tered in Berlin is from 250,000 to more than- 750,000 (1883-4, 
244,343 ; 1893-4, 518,073 ; 1900, 837,057). All cases "of trichinosis 
which have been observed in Berlin during this period are to be 
ascribed to the consumption of uninspected hams which were sent 
to consumers from outside sources.* 

This experience argues against the assumption of Putz that 
cases of trichinosis may occur even under the conscientious practice 
of trichina inspection, especially when hogs are but slightly infested 
with trichinae. Concerning the legal responsibility of the trichina 
inspector, Putz says : " If, after repeatedly eating pork, within a 
short time the persons concerned are affected with trichinosis in 
varying degrees, but for the most part slightly, it is to be assumed 
that the hog in question was infested with trichinae only to such an 
extent that the failure to detect them in the legally prescribed 
inspection was possible without any carelessness on the part of the 
inspector." 

Provided the proper selection of meat samples is made, such a 
failure to detect trichinae appears to be impossible on the basis of 
the Berlin experience. To be sure, it should be remembered in 
this connection that the conditions are somewhat different in Berlin 
than in a country where in case of slaughtering for home use a 
cumulative effect may ari'se much more easily on account of the con- 

* In the period just mentioned, the following cases of trichinosis occurred 
in Berlin after eating pork which was sent directly to the consumers from outside 
localities : In 1881, 15 cases with 2 deaths ; 1882, 3 cases, no death ; 1883-5, 10 
cases, 2 deaths ; 1887, 5 cases, 1 death ; 1889, 8 cases, no death ; 1893-4, 9 cases, 
no death. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 487 

tinned consumption of the meat of one animal. In doubtful cases, 
therefore, the judge, according to a principle' of criminal process 
"in dubio pro reo," should decide in favor of the defendant. 

When properly practiced, trichina inspection must be consid- 
ered as a measure which perfectly fulfils its purpose. 

Practice or Trichina Inspection. — For the proper practice of 
trichina inspection, the fulfilment of the following conditions is 
necessary : 

1. Conscientious inspectors, persons who realize fully their heavy 
responsibilities, and proper compensation therefor. 

One mark (24 cents) may be considered as a suitable fee for 
inspecting a hog for trichinae. The inspection of separate pieces is 
to be compensated accordingly. In order to prevent underbidding, 
limits should be drawn for inspection districts. 

For example, in Sprottau, several trichina inspectors, on 
account of competition, felt themselves compelled gradually to 
lower the fees for trichina inspection. Hereupon, the Counsellor 
of the district issued a decree in the interest of a careful practice of 
meat inspection, in which he fixed the fee for the inspection of a 
hog at one mark and at the same time made it a punishable offence 
to alter this fee. This decree of the Counsellor* was approved by 
the Ober-President with the provision that a variation from the fee 
as named could be permitted only in case.all of the trichina inspec- 
tors appointed for a given inspection district should agree upon a 
uniform increase or a lower fee. 

In certain provinces an attempt has been made to stimulate the 
zeal of trichina inspectors by means of premiums, 10 to 30 mark's 
for a trichina finding. In reality, such an inducement is not 
necessary, notwithstanding the fact that there is perhaps no less 
inviting occupation than that of trichina inspector. The offering of 
premiums may also give occasion to underhand dealing. Thus, in 
Griinberg, a trichina inspector fed his own and his neighbor's hogs 
with trichinous meat in order to obtain the premium of 10 marks 
for each case of infestation discovered by him. 

In the Kingdom of Prussia, domestic butchers can not be 
appointed as trichina inspectors (Ministerial decree of February 
18, 1897). 

2. Careful training of the inspectors by the proper experts, which, in 
accordance with their course of study, can be found only among 
veterinarians. For, as Steinbach rightfully asserts, we have to do 



488 INVASION DISEASES 

with a method of diagnosing an animal disease. In the Kingdom 
of Saxony, in recognition of this fact, the training and control of 
trichina inspectors is exclusively in the hands of district veterin- 
arians.* The best opportunities for the training of trichina 
inspectors are found in abattoirs, since in such places the most 
abundant demonstration of objective material is possible. 

It is impossible to understand why apothecaries should be 
given authority in ordinances concerning trichina inspection to 
practice trichina inspection without a previous examination ; for 
information concerning trichinae does not belong to the subjects of 
a pharmaceutical course. Muller, in Brunswick, in his Anweisung 
zur Untersuchung auf Trichinen, states, on the basis of certain 
experiences, that apothecaries which he had previously considered 
as " born experts " should be subjected to an examination in the 
same manner as empirics. Only physicians and veterinarians should 
be exempt from an examination. 

Physicians and veterinarians who practice trichina inspection 
as a profession require a police permit. 

3. The proper selection of muscles to he used in making the 
examination. — It has not proved satisfactory to require too many 
samples. For making an inspection for the presence of trichinae, 
the following muscles are the most suitable : The pillars of the 
diaphragm, the costal portion of the diaphragm, muscles of the 
tongue and laryngeal muscles ; for these muscles regularly contain 
trichinae even in the case of slightest infestation, which is not the 
case in other muscles, t 



* Formerly, in the Kingdom of Prussia, the training and supervision of 
trichina inspectors was exclusively in the hands of district physicians. Now, 
however, a change has taken place in so far as in several governmental districts, 
such as Madgeburg, Oppeln, Posen and Koln, these functions are performed by 
official physicians and veterinarians in cooperation. 

•j- As already mentioned, page 464, the distribution of trichinae is by no means 
uniform. On the contrary, as a result of numerous investigations, we must char- 
acterize certain muscles as the preferred locations for trichinse. For example, 
Kiihn, in three hogs moderately infested with trichinae, found 25.3 per cent, in 
the diaphragm, 14 per cent, in the scapular muscles, 11.3 per cent, in the lumbar 
muscles, 8.5 per cent, in the laryngeal muscles, 7 per cent, in the flexor muscles 
of the thigh, etc. Kiihn demonstrated 1.3 per cent, in one case in.the inter- 
costal muscles and in another 22 per cent. Hertwig made a report concerning 
the enumeration of trichinse, which was undertaken in samples 10 square centi- 
meters in size from 150 hogs. In all, 1,329 trichinae were found in the pillars of 
the diaphragm, 1,115 in the muscles of the tongue, 987 in the costal portion of 
the diaphragm, 710 in the laryngeal muscles, 491 in the abdominal muscles and 
308 in the intercostal muscles. This count discloses at the same time the highly 



ANIMAL PARASITES 489 

In taking samples it should always be remembered that the 
muscles contain the most trichinae at their points of origin and at 
the point of transition iuto tendons (page 460). Moreover, outside 
of abattoirs, the samples must be taken by the trichina inspectors 
themselves to prevent substitutions. The stamping of hogs found 
to be free from trichinae must also be looked after by the inspec- 
tors. In slaughterhouses, the taking of samples and stamping may 
"be suitably done by so-called samplers, and this practice is to be 
recommended. 

In the Kingdom of Saxony, the pillars of the diaphragm, dia- 
phragmatic, intercostal, abdominal, lumbar, or laryngeal and lingual 
muscles are prescribed. In the Kingdom of Prussia the require- 
ments in this respect vary in different provinces. In most places 
too many and quite unsuitable samples (for example, even the 
heart) are named for examination. * In Berlin samples are taken 
from the pillars of the diaphragm, abdominal, laryngeal and inter- 
costal muscles, with results already mentioned. The intercostal 
muscles, however, are not suitable for furnishing samples for 
trichina inspection, since, as a rule, in slaughtered hogs they are 
strongly infiltrated with fat tissue. Objection may be made against 
taking the muscles of the eye as samples, as prescribed in many 
localities, that they are very difficult to dissect out, and objection 
may be made against samples from other muscles, except those 
of the diaphragm, tongue and larynx, that they do not belong to the 
principal locations of trichinae. 

Billings considers it as the most reliable method to examine 
24 preparations exclusively from the pillars of the diaphragm. To 
this practice, which is in vogue in St. Petersburg, no objection can 
be made (Hertwig). 



interesting fact that even in case of very slight invasion, the four first-named 
muscles regularly contained trichinae, while they were almost as uniformly 
wanting in the abdominal and intercostal muscles. The results of the investi- 
gation undertaken by Hertwig have been subsequently confirmed by Goltz, Mis- ' 
■selwitz, Trautwein and Gunther. 

In accordance with recommendations made by the writer, the above-named 
four muscles have been prescribed for microscopic inspection for the presence of 
trichina?, in the Prusssian governmental districts of Hildesheim, Posen, Magde- 
burg, Koln, Minister, as well as in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 
and in the Duchy of Gotha. 

* As a model regulation for the practice of trichina inspection, we may re- 
commend the police regulation for the governmental district of Koln concern- 
ing the inspection of pork for trichina and cysticerci of May 12, 1898 (Ztschr. 
i. Fleisch u. Milchhyg. VIII.). 



490 INVASION DISEASES 

Examination of Isolated Pieces of Meat and Meat Preparations. — 
The examination of 6 suitable preparations each from the pillars of 
the diaphragm, the costal portion of the diaphragm and the muscles 
of the larynx and tongue, makes it possible to determine with cer- 
tainty whether the hog is infested with trichinae or not. In the 
investigation of isolated pieces of meat and manufactured articles 
the certain demonstration of trichinae which may be present is much 
more difficult. 

Heretofore this difficulty has never been properly appreciated. 
It has been considered that hams and bacon sides are sufficiently 
well examined if one, or at most two, samples are taken from them 
and examined in the ordinary manner. This procedure, overlooks 
the fact that these parts contain trichinae much more sparingly than 
the above-mentioned preferred locations of trichinae. In 1882 Rog- 
ner examined various muscles from 21 trichinous hogs for the 
presence of trichinae, investigating the preparations of from 22 to 
25 square centimeters area from each muscle, and thereby demon- 
strated the regular occurrence of trichinae in the muscular portions 
of the diaphragm, while the parasites were not found in the cervi- 
cal muscles and muscles of mastication in 6 trichinous hogs, in the 
hams and abdominal muscles of 9 trichinous hogs and in the inter- 
costal muscles of 10 trichinous hogs. 

Goltz took samples from various parts of 26 hogs and made 
preparations of 30 square centimeters area. In these examinations 
he found no trichinae in the abdominal muscles in one hog, in the 
dorsal muscles of 5 hogs and in the cervical muscles of 3 hogs ; 
only 1 to 4 trichinae in the abdominal muscles of 11 hogs, in 
the dorsal muscles of 12 hogs and in the cervical muscles of 
10 hogs. 

Finally, Giinther examined 36 preparations of 30 square centi- 
meters area from various muscles in 50 hogs and found no trichinae 
in the hams in 18 hogs, in the abdominal muscles in 18 hogs, in the 
lumbar muscles in 13 hogs and in the intercostal muscles in 15 hogs, 
while only 1 to 4 trichinae were found in the hams of 18 hogs, in the 
abdominal muscles of 9, in the lumbar muscles of 19 and in the 
intercostal muscles of 17. 

From these counts it appears that the previous customary 
method of examining hams, sides of bacon and other pieces of meat 
for trichinae is unsatisfactory. In making an examination of only 
6, or at most 12, preparations from one of these pieces, trichinae are 
quite often overlooked, which could have been detected by making 
a larger number of preparations. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 491 

To be sure, it should be admitted that hams and other pieces 
of meat in which no trichinae can be demonstrated from 30 ordi- 
nary preparations are so slightly infested that their consumption, 
as a rule, is without danger. With regard to other pieces of meat 
in which only one trichina is found in 30 preparations, the possibil- 
ity of danger to human health can not be excluded. It appears, 
therefore, that as many preparations must be examined from pieces 
of meat to be inspected as from whole hogs, if the inspection is to 
furnish a guaranty against trichinae. 

This holds good for hams, shoulders, sides of bacon, backs, 
loins, spare ribs and necks. Sides of bacon which are perfectly 
free from muscles do not need to be inspected for trichinae (Prus- 
sian Ministerial Decree, June 21, 1878). 

In halves of hogs offered for inspection without larynx and 
tongue, two samples each are to be inspected from the pillars of the 
diaphragm and costal portion of the diaphragm. 

With regard to manufactured pork products (sausage, etc.), 
their inspection is to be carried out in such a manner that portions 
consisting as nearly as possible of muscle are taken from cut sur- 
faces for making preparations. It is, however, a matter of chance 
if the presence of trichinae is discovered in this kind of inspection, 
since, in the commercial preparation of products which are intended 
exclusively for export, sausage is made from the mingled meat of 
many hogs. For this reason the inspection of sausage and pressed 
hogshead furnishes no protection against trichinae. 

4. Accurate Statement of the Size and Number of the Preparations to 
be Made from Samples of Muscle. — In Berlin the custom prevails of 
inspecting six preparations the size of an oat grain from each of the 
four muscle samples, which in that city, as already mentioned, are 
taken from the pillars of the diaphragm and the abdominal, 
laryngeal and intercostal muscles. The preparations of the size of 
oat grains are crushed between the plates of a so-called compres- 
sorium (Fig. 153), so as to render them perfectly transparent. 

5. Accurate Statement of the Minimum Tissue to be Devoted to the 
Inspection. — There is a regulation in Berlin to the effect that, 
including the making of the preparations, but excluding the taking 
of the samples, eighteen minutes are to be devoted to the examina- 
tion of the muscle samples of one hog. In abattoirs this time may 
be sufficient for the examination of twenty-four preparations made 
as just described in paragraph 4 preceding. For the examination 
of more preparations more time is required, and for trichina inspec- 



492 



INVASION DISEASES 



$ion in country districts in general, a longer time is to be prescribed. 
The number of hogs to be inspected by one trichina inspector during 
a single day should in general not exceed twenty. 

The governmental president at Danzig has decreed that trichina 
inspectors in public abattoirs in which the samples are taken by 
special samplers may inspect as many as twenty whole or half hogs 
and shall spend at least fifteen minutes upon each inspection. 

6. Constant or Frequent Supervision of the Trichina Inspectors. — 
Tn order to prevent neglect of duty or carelessness, it is absolutely 
necessary that inspectors be subjected to some sort of control. The 
best form of this control consists in the so-called double trichina 
inspection, in which the same or different preparations from one and 
the same hog are examined by two inspectors working independ- 
ently of each other. This system, however, can be practiced only 

Fig. 153. 




Berlin compressorium for trichina inspection. 

In abattoirs. Where it is not practicable, the empirical trichina 
inspectors are to be subjected as frequently as possible to a control 
of their work and to visits at regular intervals, in which an exami- 
nation of the instruments is to be included.* In this control and 
supervision it is to be remembered that in some cases the failure on 
the part of the trichina inspectors to perform their duty is not due 
io carelessness, but to a defect of vision. In the Kingdom of 
Prussia, the trichina inspectors have to, be examined every two 
years (Ministerial regulations of January 20, 1885). Persons who 
are admitted to the practice of trichina inspection without an 



* If such methods of control as are practiced by the official experts on their 
official trips were regularly enforced, such occurrences as the epidemic of 
trichinosis in Strenz-Neuendorf in 1884 would be impossible. The trichina 
inspector who was responsible for 86 cases of trichinosis and 12 deaths was a 
habitual drunkard who had made preparations from the hog in question, but had 
not inspected them, for trichinae could be easily demonstrated in large numbers 
in the preparations. 



ANIMAL PAKASITES 49o> 

examination are naturally exempt also from subsequent examina- 
tion. 

For the rest, the control and supervision should be practiced 
by the same experts who make the original examination, with the 
exception of trichina inspectors appointed in abattoirs, who are 
naturally under the suitable supervision of the veterinary abattoir 
directors and may be examined as occasion requires. The same 
holds true for the confirmation of a finding of trichinae (page 494)- 

"With regard to better methods of control, Herz makes the 
following suggestion : It is to be made the duty of trichina inspec- 
tors to preserve all preparations inspected by them together witLt 
the compressoriums, which may be cheaply made in large quantities 
from window glass, and to submit them at periods of from two to> 
four weeks to the official veterinarians for inspection together witli 
a record of the inspection report. In order to make it possible to 
re-examine dissected preparations, it is only necessary to moisten 
them with salt solution or with glycerine. Kabitz recommended 
inspection by the projection apparatus for re-examining compres- 
sorium specimens which have already been examined under the 
microscope. This method of making a re-examination is, according: 
to the investigations of the writer, very satisfactory in the case of 
fresh meat. It requires farther investigation to determine whether 
the projection apparatus can also be used in the case of pickled and 
smoked meat. 

The following case shows the necessity of the control of the 
instruments. According to the report of the Saxon district vet^ 
erinarian, Peschel, a trichina inspector in Dresden had to be 
removed for the reason that he did not observe a single one of twelve 
trichinae in a certain preparation. The lenses of the microscope 
used by this model trichina inspector were smeared with grease and 
the microscope itself was so covered with dirt that it could be 
scraped off with a knife. 

A single failure to see trichinae justifies the removal of the 
inspector (Decision of the Prussian Administrative Court of 
November 21, 1895). 

For further details on the practice of trichina inspection, consult 
special books concerning this subject (Johne and Long). In this 
connection we may reiterate that for the practice of trichina inspec- 
tion a simple microscope with a magnification of 40 diameters and 
the crushing of preparations between the glass plates of a so-called 
compressorium, as is customary in Berlin, are especially to be 



494 



INVASION DISEASES 



recommended. Fresh pork is best examined without the addition 
<>f water or any other substance. For the examination of hams, on 
the other hand, the use of water, dilute acetic acid, or potash lye, 
is desirable. 

For preventing erroneous condemnation, it should be required 
that all findings of trichina) and all doubtful findings should be 
submitted for the decision of the supervising expert. 

Extent and Results of Trichina Inspection in the 'Kingdom of 
Prussia. — An approximate idea of the extent and results of obliga- 
tory trichina inspection in the Kingdom of Prussia, as well as 
interesting data concerning the origin of outbreaks of trichinosis 
maybe obtained from the following statistics : 



Yeab 


N'n. of Hogs No. op Trichin- 
Inspectbd OUS llotiS 


Nb. OF Ml-.A-I.Y 

lluii.s 


No. OP Tkhiiina 
[nsfectobs 


1886 
1890 
1896 
1899 


4,834.898* 
5,590,510 
8,759,490 
9,230,353 


2,114 
1,756 

1,877 
1.021 


10,126 
5,420 
5 958 

4.390 


•2-2.939 
24.454 
27.602 
28.224 



Cases of trichinosis in man were frequently observed during 
the years 1895 to 1900. From March 7-13, 1883, twelve cases of 
trichinosis were reported in Wandsbeck on account of eating 
trichinous meat. These were followed by two in Hamburg and two 
very slight doubtful cases in Wandsbeck. One of these cases 
terminated fatally, while all the others were mild. About the middle 
of August, ten persons living in one neighborhood in Halle, took 
sick after eating trichinous pork. They were boarding at the same 
inn and all cases were mild. The responsibility for the matter was 
never determined. 

At the beginning of March, 1877, two cases occurred in 
Gerdauen, and in January and February, twelve cases with one 
death in Heilsberg as a result of eating raw meat. Toward the end 
of March there were eight cases in Mohrungen ; in May, four cases 
with one death in Ortelsburg, and in February, ten cases in "Wehlau 
as a result of eating insufficiently smoked sausage. In no case was 
the meat previously inspected for trichina\ Moreover, toward the 
end of 1887, five cases of trichinosis with one death in 1888 occurred 
in Berlin from eating non-inspected pork which had been marketed 
in the city, and in December, twelve cases occurred in Muhlhausen. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 495 

In the year 1888, six cases with two deaths occurred in Fisch- 
hausen ; in January, three cases in Memel ; in February, sixteen 
cases in Mohrungen. AH these cases were due to eating the meat 
of hogs which had not been inspected. Furthermore, in February, 
six cases occurred in Mansfeld (the meat was only slightly infested 
with trichinae and the inspector was not considered guilty of 
neglect). In the district of Pinneberg, three cases occurred in 
December (due to eating raw sausage or imperfectly cooked meat). 
One child merely had a severe case of diarrhea. 

In January, 1889, eight cases of trichinosis with two deaths 
occurred in the district of Heilsberg after eating raw pork or smoked 
sausage. The meat was not inspected for trichinae. Moreover, in 
January, six cases with one death occurred in the district of 
Allenstein, and in February, five cases at Burgwenden. In the latter 
case the meat was eaten continuously for three weeks. Persons 
who ate only once on the day when the animals were slaughtered 
remained healthy. Later in February, seven cases with one death 
occurred in Fischhausen from eating smoked sausage. The meat 
was not inspected. In September there were about twenty cases in 
Eisleben, twelve in Wimmelburg and about fifteen in Ahlsdorf, 
Hergesdorf and other localities, making in all about fifty cases. 
The cause was not understood. Finally, mention should be made 
of eight cases in December in the district of Griitz — gross neglect 
of duty on the part of the inspector — and fourteen cases in seven 
families during autumn in Halle. In the latter case the cause was 
not clear. 

The majority of cases in the years 1889-1891 occurred in the 
governmental district Merseburg, where, during 4 successive epi- 
demics, 27 persons were affected. A larger epidemic occurred in 
the district of Posen with 44 cases and 4 deaths. As a result of 
these cases 2 meat inspectors in that district were tried and found 
guilty of gross neglect of duty. In the district of Bromberg, 24 
cases were observed and 11 persons were affected as a result of eat- 
ing dried unsmoked sausage which had been introduced from Rus- 
sian Poland. These cases caused a proclamation of a police ordi- 
nance which prescribes obligatory inspection of pork introduced 
from Russia. A particularly unfortunate case occurred in Breslau. 
Although the meat in question had been declared trichinous, it was, 
nevertheless, sold from a sordid desire for gain. Fourteen persons 
were affected, 6 of whom died. The vendor of the meat was con- 
demned to 15 years' imprisonment. 

Other epidemics of trichinosis occurred in 1890 on an estate 



496 INVASION DISEASES 

in the district of Schrirnni and in Opalenitza, during which 16 per- 
sons were affected, all of whom recovered. 

In 1891, 7 persons in one family were affected with trichinosis, 
in the district of AllensteiL All of these persons had eaten of the 
meat of a slaughtered hog b&tore it had been inspected for trichinae, 
which were later found to be present in large numbers. All of 
the cases terminated in recovery. Likewise in the beginning of 
1891, in the district of Ortelsburg, one forester and two dependent 
families, as well as two other grown persons, were affected with 
trichinosis. The cases were mild and appeared after eating pork 
which contained but few trichinae. The inspector who had not 
detected the trichinae was removed from his post. All cases 
recovered. In Stettin, during the same year, there were 8 cases 
from eating ham which came from Memel ; 6 cases in the district 
of Gratz, 8 cases in the district of Sehrinim, 3 of whom died, and 6 
in the district of Schrode, one of whom died. The inspector who 
had carelessly caused the death of human beings received 6 
months' imprisonment. 

In the year 1892, 4 cases of trichinosis occurred in the govern- 
mental district Konigsberg, with a favorable course of the disease ; 
and 22 cases in the governmental district Posen, where 3 deaths 
occurred in a butcher's family. In 1897, 242 cases with one death 
occurred in Kelbra-Altendorf. The hogs were slaughtered by 
" polka butchers," and the meat was probably not inspected, sinca 
the trichina inspector did not take samples himself. 

In August, 1900, 67 persons were affected with trichinosis irt 
Sangerhausen. This trichina inspector also had not taken the sam- 
ples himself. 

Appendix. 

Is inspection for trichina necessary in the case of salted pork 
imported from America ? After attention had already been called 
to the fact, especially by Yirchow, that with the exception of one 
not unquestionable observation in Bremen,* no case of trichinosis 
could be ascribed to the consumption of salted American pork, the 
question of the viability of American trichina has again recently 
become the subject of the most searching investigation as a result 
of the admission of American pork (September 3, 1891). America 



* According to Roper, 40 persons in Bremen who bad eaten only American 
hams were affected with trichinosis. Another case of trichinosis occurred in 
Diisseldorf as a result of eating American pork. 



ANIMAL PAEASITES 497 

"had guaranteed the trichina inspection of all pork intended for 
export. However, the unsatisfactory nature of this guaranty is 
shown by the extraordinarily numerous findings of trichinae in 
American pork which have been made in this country, despite the 
fact that these products bear the official certificate that they have 
been inspected according to act of Congress of March 3, 1891. 
Several authorities, especially Wasserfuhr and C. Frankel, declared 
that a subsequent inspection of American pork was unnecessary, 
since trichinae which might be contained in the imported products 
were rendered harmless by the method of preservation and since 
the best protection against trichinosis is thorough boiling or fry- 
ing. It was argued that numerous negative results from feeding 
experiments with American trichinae demonstrated the slight dan- 
ger of trichinosis from eating imported products. 

Against this line of argument, Hertwig contended that living 
trichinae had repeatedly been demonstrated in American pork dur- 
ing subsequent inspection in Germany. Johne had previously 
emphasized this fact. It was stated that viable parasites were 
most frequently observed in the interior of meat products. It was 
held also that boiling and roasting furnish no certain protection, as. 
long as meat was prepared according to the taste of the consumer 
rather than according to the thermometer. A subsequent inspec- 
tion of American pork was, therefore, considered necessary. Duncker 
argued similarly. This author emphasized especially the fact that 
not only he himself, but other authors as well, for example, in 
Dresden and Hamburg, had succeeded, by means of feeding Ameri- 
can pork to rabbits, in demonstrating the reproductive power of 
trichinae in American meat. Similar results were previously 
obtained by Chattin and Fourment, and recently again by Janssen, 
Bievel, Bohm and the author. Furthermore, the fact should be 
emphasized that in a given case no guaranty whatever is furnished 
of an effective process of pickling which kills trichinae. It may 
readily occur that the pickling of certain pieces is incomplete and 
Hertwig has demonstrated that this does occur. Hertwig repeat- 
edly found American hams which were pickled so defectively that 
the deeper parts had decomposed. Moreover, it should also be 
considered that calcified trichinae are not killed by pickling and 
that they are sometimes found to be still viable in perfectly pickled 
products. Finally, the Deutsche Fleischer Zeitung called attention to- 
the fact that Section 367 of the German Criminal Law Statutes for- 
bids the sale of meat containing trichinae and that, therefore, for 
the traffic it is quite immaterial whether American pork contains. 



498 INVASION DISEASES 

trichinae in a living or dead condition. Moreover, this journal 
recounted the fact that American bacon is also utilized in the prepa- 
ration of mettwurst and cervalatwurst, which, as is well known, are 
eaten in a raw condition. 

What has been said regarding the necessity of inspecting pork 
imported from America holds true also for pork imported from 
other foreign countries. 

For the older literature concerning trichinae in American pork, 
reference should be made to Frankel (Deutsche Med. Wochenschr., 
1891, No. 51). According to more recent experiments, Janssen suc- 
ceeded in cultivating a few intestinal trichinae, but no muscle 
trichinae, from the specimen of American pork with which he 
worked. Rievel, Bohm and the author succeeded also in producing 
a development of muscle trichinae by feeding experiments with 
thoroughly dehydrated American ham. On the other hand, Klap- 
hake, Ernst, Frankel, the Imperial Health Office, Hintzen and 
Schenck obtained only negative results. 

Trichinae Findings in Imported American Pork Inspected According to the 
Act of Congress of March 3, 1891. 

After the readmission of American pork it was found that 
•pieces of American pork were very frequently trichinous. In these 
instances it was not a case of slight infestation, but the pieces of 
pork were frequently so extensively infested with trichinae that the 
failure to detect the worms, even by a superficial examination at the 
point of export, had to be considered as absolutely impossible. 

During the subsequent inspection in Germany, trichinae were 
found in pork of American origin, as shown by the following 
statistics : 

In Altona, 1891-7, in 63 hams, 2 sides of bacon, 6 pieces of 
cutlets, and in one large shipment of sausage ; in Bremen, 1891-7, 
in 130 hams, 5 sides of bacon ; in Diisseldorf, 1891-7, in 182 hams, 
•227 sides of bacon, one piece of pickled meat and 6 sausages ; in 
Elberfeld and Barmen, 1891-7, in 114 hams and 9 sides of bacon ; 
in Stettin, in 8 hams and 1,049 sides of bacon ; in the Kingdom of 
Prussia, 1894-5, in 1,624 hams and sides of bacon. 

Bockelmann, in Aachen, examined 60 boxes of American sausage 
and found that 11 contained trichinous products. 

That in this regard no change has occurred even at the present 
time is shown by the fact that in 1899 trichinae were found in 1,263 
hams and sides of bacon of American origin and these findings were 



ANIMAL PARASITES 499 

made in pieces of meat in which the parasites could not have been 
demonstrated if the animals had not been extensively infested. 



3. — Parasites Which Are Not Immediately Harmful to Man, 

But Which May Become So After A Preliminary 

Change of Host. 

Among the parasites of food animals which can not be directly 
transmitted to man, but only after a previous change of host, belong 
the echinococci and the larvae of Pentastomum tcenioides. The 
developmental stages of these parasites which occur in food 
animals are not directly transmissible to man. In fact, human 
beings may eat organs infested by these parasites without danger 
to health ; nevertheless, it is the duty of the sanitary police to 
destroy these internal parasites, since they can be transmitted to 
man by dogs after maturing in this animal. 

The echinococcus disease of man, compared with which pen- 
tastomatosis plays an unimportant role, is a relatively frequent and 
also a very dangerous disease. '• According to accurate statistics, 
one case of echinococcus disease is found in every 130 autopsies in 
. middle Europe. Furthermore, medical experience shows that 50 
per cent, of the echinococcus patients die before the lapse of five 
.years. The disease formerly had a very wide distribution in Ice- 
, land, where, according to Eschricht, one-sixth and, according to 
Schleisner, one-seventh of all the inhabitants suffered from it. 
Finsen and Jonassen, as well as Krabbe (personal communication) 
consider these figures as. too high. According to Finsen, one 
echinococcus patient is found in each 43 inhabitants of Iceland, 
and, according to Jonassen, one for every 61. , These figures, how- 
ever, show a very wide distribution of the echinococcus disease on 
the Danish Island. According to further statistics collected by 
. Finsen, one out of every 27 patients in the nine years from 1857 to 
1865 was infested with echinococci. 

We have, however, even in Germany, districts in which the 
echinococcus disease is frequent, especially Mecklenburg and 
Hither-Pomerania. 

The Mecklenburg Medical Society has collected valuable 
statistics concerning the etiology of the echinococcus disease in that 
locality. It is shown by the report of Madelung, who summarized 
the results of this investigation, that since 1850, not less than 182 
cases of echinococcus disease in man have been observed in Meek- 



500 INVASION DISEASES 

lenburg, among which it should be remembered that scarcely- 
one-third were rightly diagnosed. In Mecklenburg, one in 7,108 
inhabitants is affected with the disease, and in Rostock, one in 
1,414. 

According to Madelung, echinococci were found in the various 
cities of Germany and neighboring countries in autopsies with the 
following frequency : Rostock, 25 cases, or 2.43 per cent., in 1,026- 
autopsies ; Breslau, 20 cases, or 1.47 per cent., in 1,360 autopsies • 
Berlin, 33 cases, or 0.76 per cent., in 4,770 autopsies ; Gottingen, 3 
cases, or 0.46 per cent., in 639 autopsies ; Dresden, 7 cases, or 0.34 
per cent., in 2,002 autopsies ; Vienna, 3 cases, or 0.24 per cent., in 
1,229 autopsies ; Prag, 3 cases, or 0.23 per cent., in 1,287 autopsies ; 
Basel, Bern and Zurich, 11 cases, or 0.14 per cent., in 7,982 
autopsies ; Erlangen, 2 cases, or 0.11 per cent., in 1,812 autopsies. 

Echinococci in man are rarer in middle and southern than in 
northern Germany. In northern Germany, the greatest number of 
cases are observed in Pomerania and Mecklenburg. 

Madelung is of the opinion that the frequency of the echino- 
coccus disease in Mecklenburg is not explained by the number of 
dogs (the ratio of dogs to man is 1 : 18 or 1 : 19 ; while in Berlin 
the ratio is 1 : 36 ; and in Bavaria, 1 : 16 to 1 : 25). It is stated that 
the reason is to be found in the fact that there is no meat inspection 
in Mecklenburg.* 

The distribution of the echinococcus disease in Hither- 
Pomerania is similarly explained by statistics collected by Peiper, 
who, by means of inquiries directed to all physicians and to the 
heads of hospitals of Hither-Pomerania, succeeded in demonstrating 
the occurrence of 150 cases of the- disease in question between 1860 
and 1894. Of these cases, 54 occurred in the Greifswald Patholog- 
ical Institute. The percentage of echinococcus disease observed in 
this institute is very high (1.9 per cent.). In Hither-Pomerania, 
according to Peiper, there is one case of echinococcus disease for 
every 3,336 inhabitants. In the northern districts of Bergen, 
Stralsund, Franzburg, Greifswald and Anklam, the disease is more 
widely distributed (1.2, or 1 : 2,096) than in the southern districts of 
Demmin, Usedom, "Wollin, Ueckermunde and Randow (0.44, or 
1 : 7,265). The greatest number of cases occurred in the city of 



* Bollinger remarks, with regard to the work of Madelung, that the latter 
confirms his opinion, elsewhere stated, that the frequency of zooparasite diseases 
in man, like that of tapeworms in man, is entirely dependent upon the kind of 
meat inspection, and that the means for combating these dangerous diseases is 
found in a better system of meat inspection. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 501 

■Oreifswald (16) and the district of Greifswald (39 ; = 1 : 1,535) ; so 
that we may speak of the endemic appearance of the echinococcus 
disease in this region. In other parts of Pomerania, echinococcus 
disease is no more frequent than in the rest of Germany. 

According to the investigations of Peiper, the echinococcus 
disease in man bears a direct relation to the distribution of the 
disease among domesticated animals. The disease is comparatively 
frequent among domesticated animals in Hither-Pomerania, where 
large numbers of domesticated animals are raised. There are 41 
cattle, 180 sheep and 40 hogs for each 100 inhabitants, as against 
34.5,41.9 and 20.1, respectively, in the whole German Empire. A 
very large number of dogs is also kept. 

The average percentage of echinococcus disease, according to 
the results of meat inspection in abattoirs located in 52 different 
parts of Germany, is 10.39 in cattle, 9.83 in sheep and 6.47 in hogs; 
while in the abattoirs of Hither-Pomerania, on the other hand 
(Greifswald, Wolgast, Anklam, Demmin and Swinemunde), it is 
37.73, 27.1 and 12.8, respectively; in Greifswald, 64.58, 51.02 and 
4.93, respectively. 

(a) Echinococci. 

Nature. — The echinococcus is the asexual stage of a tapeworm 
with three to four segments ( Tcenia echinococcus of the dog). 

History. — -Taenia echinococcus, which lives as a parasite in the 
small intestine of the dog and wolf, was recognized as an inde- 
pendent species of tapeworm by von Siebold in 1853. This taenia 
is 2.5 to 6 mm. long, 0.3 mm. wide, and furnished with a protruding 
rostellum and with from 28 to 50 hooks. The last proglottid is 
about 2 mm. long and contains ripe eggs (Fig. 154). Von Siebold 
first reared the taenia by feeding the echinococcus to sheep. 
Leu'ckart also succeeded in producing the echinococci by feeding 
ripe echinococcus taenia to a young pig. • 

Various Forms of the Eohinogocci. — The echinococci occur in 
two chief forms : (1) as Echinococcus polymorphus s. unilocularis and 
(2) as E. multilocularis s. alveolaris. 

E. polymorphus forms simple cysts surrounded by connective 
tissue. They are of quite uniform appearance in their outer form, 
but may be distinguished in their internal anatomy by the fact that in 
some cases daughter cysts, or daughter vesicles, are developed from 



502 



INVASION DISEASES 



Fig. 154. 



the mother cysts ; in other cases not. Moreover, the mother cyst, 
together with the daughter cyst, is a simple structure which is 
delimited from the neighboring organic tissue by a connective tissue 
capsule. As contrasted with this form, the multilocular 
echinococcus forms daughter cysts by constriction, 
which in turn are furnished with the same reproductive 
power. E multilocular is develops from a central mother 
cyst and exhibits an uninterrupted peripheral growth. 
The second difference consists in the fact that in the 
case of E. multilocularis the daughter cysts do not 
remain in the mother cyst, or inside of the organic 
membrane formed about the latter, but, after being 
constricted off, they become separated from the mother 
cyst by connective tissue. Consequently, the vesicles 
in the case of E. multilocularis attain no great size and 
lie in the connective tissue framework like the epithelia 
of an acinous gland (E. alveolaris). 

As a result of the feeding experiments of Mangold, 
it must be considered as proved that E. polymorphus 
and E. multilocularis are not, as was previously assumed, 
two different growth forms of one and the same species, 
but are the immature stages of two different, but ex- 
ternally very similar, taeniae. The chief difference, 
according to Mangold, lies in the length of the hooks. The total 
length of the hooks of the multilocular form bears a ratio to that of 
the hooks of the unilocular species of 18 or 19 to 16; and the 



Adult Taenia 

echinococcus 

cysticus, 

X 12diam. 

(Leuckart). 



Fig. 155. 




Intact and ruptured brood capsules in their connection with the parenchymatous 
layer (Leuckart). X 40 diameters. 



length ot the basal portion bears a ratio of 10 to 7. Moreover, 
Muller demonstrated that in T. echinococcus multilocularis the eggs 
were grouped together in a conical or spherical mass in the mature 
proglottid. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



503 



Echinococcus Polymorphic S. Unilocularis. 



Morphology. — Echinococcus polymorphus is found in the form of 
toiind structures in the interior of various organs. When occupy- 
ing a superficial position, the parasite appears like a section of a 
sphere. Two chief portions are to be distinguished in the para- 
site : the echinococcus membrane filled with fluid and the so-called 
organic membrane and connective tissue formed by reaction of the 
surrounding tissue after the invasion of the parasites. 

Fig. 156. 




Echinococcus polymorphic with brood capsules in natural size and position. 

(Leuckart.) 

After being removed from the connective tissue capsule, the 
echinococcus membrane is not of so regular a form as the encysted 
parasite, but easily becomes wrinkled and corrugated. The color 
of the echinococcus membrane in the case of young echinococci is 
light-gray to grayish-blue and pure white in older forms. The 
membranes of young echinococci are thin and transparent; those of 
older ones, thick and opaque. 

Two layers are to be distinguished in the echinococcus mem- 
brane : the stria-ted or lamellate cuticula, and the parenchymatous 



£04 



INVASION DISEASES 



layer. The latter lias a structure similar to that of the cyst of 
cysticerci and also possesses calcareous corpuscles (Fig. 163). 

The parenchymatous layer may be smooth on the internal sur- 
face and may contain only fluid. It is customary, then, to speak of 
a simple, non-fertile echinococcus (Echinococcus cysticus sterilus). 
This is the form of Echinococcus polymorphus which is most fre- 
quently observed in all food animals. The parenchymatous layer, 
however, may produce so-called brood capsules (Fig. 155), which 
are connected with the parenchymatous layer by short stalks and 
which contain a variable number of scoleces (Echinococcus cysticus 
fertilis, Fig. 156). This echinococcus form is, as a rule, more rare. 



Fig. 157. 




Echinococcus hydatidosus of the liver (Thoma). 

It is comparatively frequent only in sheep, and less common, on 
the other hand, in cattle and hogs. Moreover, daughter cysts may 
be formed from the small remnants of the parenchyma layer which 
remain lying between the different layers of the cuticula of the 
mother cyst (Braun). The daughter cysts project either outwardly 
or inwardly. A portion of them may be dissolved and may fall into 
the fluid of the mother cyst. Echinococci with outwardly project- 
ing daughter cysts are known as Echinococcus granulosus ; those with 
inwardly projecting daughter cysts, as E. hydatidosus (Fig. 157). 
The daughter cysts in turn may form further daughter cysts and 
may be sterile or fertile. 

Echinococcus granulosus is the rarest form of echinococcus in 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



505 



food animals. The author observed this form in a few cases in 
sheep. Somewhat more frequent, but still rather rare, is E. hyda- 
tidosus in cattle, sheep and hogs. 

The size of the polymorphous echinococcus varies from that 
of a sago grain or small pea to that of a man's head. E. hydatidosus 
is usually largest in cattle ; in horses, echinococci are rarely larger 
than a pea. 

The youngest forms of echinococci, a knowledge of which is 
due to the feeding experiments of Leuckart, are distinguished from 
the older forms by the fact that they do not possess any internal 
cavity filled with fluid, but appear as 
solid round structures. These struc- Fig. 158. 

tures have the size of sago grains, are 
grayish-white or yellowish-white in 
color and of a gelatinous consistency. 
Under the microscope we may dis- 
tinguish a hyaline surrounding mem- 
brane and a granulated internal layer 
in the young echinococci (Fig. 158). 



Development op Echinococci. — 
The development of echinococci takes 
place very slowly. According to Leuc- 
kart, echinococci reach a size of 0.25 to 
.3 mm. at 4 weeks ; 1 to 1.25 mm. at 8 
weeks ; and 15 to 20 mm. at 20 weeks 
of age. The central cavity is not to 
be seen until after 8 weeks and the for- 
mation of the brood capsules not until 
after 5 months. 




Young echinococcus, just out of 
the capsule, four weeks old 
(Leuckart). X 50 diameters. 



Occurrence, Location and Pathogenic Importance. — Echino- 
coccus polymorpkus occurs as a frequent parasite in sheep, cattle 
and hogs ; less often, on the other hand, in goats and horses. The 
usual locations of polymorphous echinococci are the liver, lungs 
and spleen ; less often, the heart, kidneys, peritoneum, marrow cavi- 
ties of the bones, lymphatic glands, udder and muscles. The mus- 
cles are infested with echinococci only in cases of the most exten- 
sive invasion. In exceptional cases even the brain and eyes may be 
the seat of echinococci (Langrich). It is worthy of mention that 
in cattle and sheep the lungs are more frequently infested with, 
echinococci than the liver. 



506 INVASION DISEASES 

As to the pathogenic importance of echiaococci, the fact should 
be emphasized that the general condition and nutrition of affected 
animals is usually not disturbed even in cases of the most exten- 
sive invasion. Cardiac echinococci may, however, produce sudden 
death; pulmonary echinococci may cause symptoms of dyspnea; 
hepatic echinococci are usually without effect on the health of the 
host, even when, as a result of echinococcus invasion, the liver is 
enlarged 10 to 20 times its normal volume and is so thoroughly 
infested with echinococci that the parasites lie side by side. This 
tolerance of the liver toward an invasion of echinococci is to be 
explained by the slow development of the parasites and the repro- 
ductive power of the liver (page 300). 

As a result of extensive invasion by echinococci, the liver may 
reach an unusual volume and an enormous weight. Echinococcus 
livers have been observed in cattle with a weight of 75 kg. and in 
hogs with a weight of 36 kg. 

The following figures may serve to give some idea of the 
frequency of the occurrence of the common echinococci : In Berlin 
during the year 1883-4, infestation with echinococci caused the 
condemnation of the lungs of 4,085 cattle, 1,896 sheep and 906 hogs ; 
and the livers of 1,164 cattle, 967 sheep and 1,485 hogs in a total 
number of 93,387 cattle, 78,220 calves, 171,077 sheep and 244,343 
hogs. In the year 1888-9, the lungs of 6,578 cattle, 5,041 sheep and 
5,010 hogs, as well as the livers of 2,668 cattle, 3,363 sheep, 5,285 
hogs were condemned for the same cause in a total number of 
141,814 cattle, 115,793 calves, 338,798 sheep and 479,124 hogs. In 
1896-7, the lungs of 3,284 cattle, 4,561 sheep, 7,788 hogs, and the 
livers of 1,156 cattle, 1 calf, 1,939 sheep, 5,398 hogs and 203 various 
other parts, especially spleens and kidneys, of all kinds of food 
animals, as well as 2 hog hearts, were condemned for the same cause 
from a total number of 146,612 cattle, 141,869 calves, 395,769 sheep 
and 694,170 hogs. 

These figures do not give the actual frequency of echinococci, 
but include only those cases in which, as a result of very extensive 
invasion, the organs could not be put in a marketable condition by 
the removal of the parasites. 

Mejer in Leipsic found that when isolated echinococci were 
included, parasites were present in 13 per cent, of sheep and also 
in 3.75 per cent, of native hogs and 21.47 per cent, of Hungarian 
hogs. In native hogs the echinococci were more frequent in the 
livers than in the lungs (3.81 per cent, of the livers as against .26 
per cent, of the lungs). On the other hand, in sheep the ratio was 



ANIMAL PARASITES 507 

inverted; viz., 12.71 per cent, of the lungs, 3.73 per cent, of the 
livers. Finally, in Hungarian hogs, 1479 percent, of the lungs and 
12.3 per cent, of the livers were infested with echinococci. 

According to Sahlmann, one-half of the animals in Mecklen- 
burg are infested with echinococci. Metelmann gives the following 
figures: 25 per cent, of cattle, 15 per cent, of sheep, 5 per cent, of 

hogs. 

Langrich reports the following statistics concerning the fre- 
quency of echinococci in animals slaughtered at the Rostock 
abattoir : In 1895, 37 per cent, of sheep, 26.2 per cent, of cattle, 5.4 
per cent, of hogs and 1 per cent, of horses were infested with 
echinococci, while in 1895-6, 36.8 per cent, of sheep, 26.6 per cent, 
of cattle, 5 per cent, of hogs, 1 per cent, of goats and 1 per cent, of 
horses were infested, and in 1896-7, 35.2 per cent, of sheep, 26.2 
per cent, of cattle, 5.3 per cent, of hogs, 2 per cent, of goats and 1 
per cent, of horses were affected. 

With regard to the frequency of echinococci in the liver and 
lungs, Langrich in 1895-6 found the parasites in cattle in from 
two-thirds to three-fifths of all cases in the lungs and liver, one- 
sixth to one-fifth of the cases in the lungs and liver only ; in sheep 
the lungs and liver were always simultaneously affected. With 
hogs the liver was most affected, and in goats the liver, and in 
horses the lungs and liver were most seriously infested. 

In Stettin, Olt calculated the following data from Pomeranian 
food animals : 293, or 7.1 per cent., in 1,425 cattle ; 1,238, or 7.3 per 
cent., in 16,829 hogs ; 3,807, or 25.8 per cent., in 14,717 sheep. Olt 
also demonstrated the presence of Tcenia echinococcus in three out 
of twelve dogs which were inspected in Stettin. 

Steuding kept a record of the occurrence of echinococci in the 
abattoir at Gotha during the months June to August, 1893, and 
found the following numbers infested with echinococci : 274, or 
24.6 per cent., in 1,113 cattle ; 633, or 21.4 per cent., in 2,949 hogs ; 
549, or 35.4 per cent., in 1,551. sheep. 

Prettner, in the abattoir at Prag, demonstrated the presence of 
echinococci in 23.2 per cent, of the cattle and 5.5 per cent, of sheep ; 
in cattle, 14 per cent, of the echinococci were found in the liver, 7.6 
per cent, in the lungs and 1.8 per cent, in the liver and lungs 
simultaneously. 

According to Gurin, the frequency of echinococci in the various 
Russian governments varies in cattle between 0.1 to 80 per cent.; in 
sheep, between 0.01 and 60 per cent.; in hogs, between 0.01 and 70 
per cent.; in horses, between 0.005 and 40 per cent. Among the 



508 INVASION DISEASES 

3,542 goats slaughtered in an abattoir in central Asia, 143 per cent, 
were infested with echinococci. 

Natural Death of Polymorphous Echinococci. — Echinococci, 
like cysticerci, may die from natural causes in any developmental 
stage. According to my observations, there are two chief modes of 
death : coagulation necrosis of the echinococcal membrane and 
inflammation of the organic membrane. In the first mode of death 
one observes a shrinking and cloudiness of the echinococcal mem- 
brane ; later, caseation and calcification. In the second form, on 
the other hand, one observes fibrinous, or, rarely, even a bloody 
exudation between the organic and echinococcal membranes, union 
and adhesion of these two membranes with necrosis of the 
echinococcal membrane. At the same time, the echinococcus fluid 
begins to disappear as a result of resorption. In case of coagula- 
tion necrosis of the echinococcal membrane, the organic membrane 
is intact and undergoes but slight alteration in its external appear- 
ance, even when the parasites die as a result of inflammation. It 
is only in sheep that one sometimes observes chondrification and 
calcification of the organic membranes after the parasites have 
died. 

The disintegrated echinococci present cysts filled with yellow, 
moist or dry, caseous, purulent or partially or totally calcified con- 
tents. Occasionally the caseous content of dead echinococci is of a 
greenish color. 

Echinococcus Multilocularis s. Alveolaris. 

Occurrence. — This species of echinococcus occurs in food 
animals, or, more properly, in one of them, the bovine, more fre- 
quently than has previously been supposed. The author called 
attention to this fact iti Deutsche Ztsch. filr Tiermedizin, XVII., and 
in that connection described 30 cases which he observed during the 
course of 13 months. Later, Mejer reported the occurrence of 
JE. multilocularis in cattle in Leipsic in 7 per cent, of the total num- 
ber of cases of echinococcus. According to Gurin, this parasite 
occurs in 0.2 per cent, of all cattle slaughtered in Russian abattoirs. 
Moreover, Mobius observed cases in sheep, in the lungs, liver and 
bronchial glands, and Schmidt, in the lungs. Gurin observed 3 
cases of this parasite in sheep. Raillet and Morot reported 100 
•cases of E. multilocularis which were observed in cattle and sheep in 
the abattoir at Troyes. Among the 200,000 hogs which the author 
lias inspected in the course of several years, E. multilocularis was 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



509 



found only once. Strose and Gurin have observed other cases in 
hogs. 

Morphology. — In veterinary works the alveolar echinococcus is 
not well described. According to my observations, the parasite is 
distinguished by the following characters : E. multilocularis forms 
in the liver, less often in other organs (spleen, lungs, kidneys, lym- 
phatic glands and bones), tumors of various sizes, which usually 
exhibit a constant growth. These tumors, which resemble specific 



Fig. 159. 




Echinococcus multilc 



in a beef liver, natural size. 



granulations, and are most nearly related to actinomycomata and 
botryomycomata, exhibit two distinct portions : a central casefied. 
and partly calcined, and an intact peripheral portion. In the peri- 
pheral zone, the tumors exhibit an elastic consistency, while in the 
calcified portion the consistency is tough and soft. The tumor as a 
whole feels moderately firm. A hard consistency is a rare occur- 
rence and is not caused, as in man, by a great proliferation of con- 
nective tissue, but by extensive calcification. A characteristic 
feature is the rather strong connective tissue framework which 



510 



INVASION "DISEASES 



penetrates the whole tumor in a net-like manner and which sepa- 
rates the calcified parts and also the recent cysts from one 
another. The young cysts arise by evagination and subsequent 
constriction of the whole wall of the mother cyst. After the 
young cysts are constricted off, the formation of connective tissue 
around the cyst takes place. 

Distinction Between Echinococcns multilocularis of Man and the 
Domestic Animals. — The echinococcus of cattle is distinguished from 

Fig. 160. 




Section through Echinococcus multilocularis of cattle. 



E. multilocularis of man (1) by the fact that it produces no clinical 
symptoms, but may be unexpectedly found in perfectly healthy 
animals ; (2) by the absence of any considerable local alterations 
in the surrounding hepatic tissue (no icterus or cirrhosis); (3) by 
the complete absence of ulcerative processes ; (4) by the greater 
development of separate cysts ; (5) by the less extensive develop- 
ment of the connective tissue framework. 

In contrast with the alveolar echinococcus of cattle, the case 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



511 



observed by the author in a hog showed a great similarity with the 
alveolar echinococcus of man. 

On the costal and pulmonary pleura of the hog in question 
there were numerous round, lenticular tubercles, as well as round- 
ish and elongated plaques with a granulated surface (Fig. 162). 
The color of the tubercles was gray or yellow and the con- 
sistency hard. The whole condition resembled the pearl disease. 
Under the microscope, however, it appeared that the tubercles and 
plaques consisted of a connective tissue framework which inclosed 
casefied and intact echinococcal cysts. Special mention should be 
made of the fact that scoleces were present even in the micro- 

Fro. 102. 



Fig. 161. ; 



a 




Section through the cortical 
zone of Echinococcus multi- 
locularis of cattle, X 2 diam. 





,ct, Echinococcus multilocularis under the costal 
pleura of a hog. 



scopically invisible cysts. A similar case was recently observed in 
cattle by Benedictis. 

By a careful microscopic examination one observes giant cells 
immediately surrounding the cysts of the multilocular echinococci, 
a condition to which attention was first called by Guillebeau in 
connection with E. multilocularis of cattle. 



Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis of Echinococci. — Intact 
polymorphous echinococci should offer no difficulty in diagnosis if 
we disregard the above described immature forms. Quite often, 
however, dead polymorphous and multilocular echinococci are conn 
fused with other pathological alterations, especially tuberculosis. 



512 INVASION DISEASES 

Casefied or calcified polymorphous ecliinococci, however, are 
distinguished from tubercles by the integrity of the correspond- 
ing lymph glands, the easy separability of the casefied contents 
from the connective tissue membrane, and the peculiar striated 
condition of the echinococcal membrane (Fig. 163), which is 
easily demonstrable, even in the case of extensively casefied echino- 
cocci. 

E. multilocularis likewise causes, as a rule, no alterations in the 
corresponding lymph glands and exhibits on the periphery fresh 

Tig. 163. 





S 



frfy. 2° *°\° "°o°° 



Oblique section through the wall of a fertile echinoeoeeus. 

a, lamellate stratification of the cuticula; b, scoleces, partly in the brood capsule, 

partly free as a result of maceration ; c, calcareous corpuscles. X 35 diam. 

cysts and echinococcal membranes with striated cuticula, at least 
when examined under the microscope. 

Tuberculous conglomerates, to which E. multilocularis may show 
great similarity, possess a firm, dry, or purulent character in con- 
trast with the elastic and tough, but soft, consistency of E. multilo- 
cularis. 

Under certain conditions, unilocular ecliinococci may give rise 
to confusion with cysticerci. Lungwitz reported two such cases in 
which echinococci of the size of peas and located in the heart of 
a hog were mistaken for cysticerci. 



ANIMAL PARASITES 



513 



Judgment of Echinococci. — Organs infested with echinococci 
are not dangerous to health, but are to be considered merely as 
spoiled (inferior) food material, for the larvse of echinococcus taenia 
which occur in the organs of food animals can not develop in man, 
even if fertile, and do not cause any other harm. The majority of 
the organs infested with echinococci can be saved for food by care- 
fully removing the echinococci. This is permissible in cases 
where the echinococci are present only in moderate numbers and of 
such size that removal is possible. They are best removed by 
cutting the organs into thin disks. Parasites which are excised 
during this process and whole organs which are condemned on 
account of extensive invasion are to be rendered innocuous. 
Special effort should be made to prevent the possibility of the 
parasites which have been removed from organs, or of parts which 
are infested with parasites, becoming accessible to dogg. 



Fig. 164. 




Intestinal mucous membrane of a do°\ with Tasnia echinococcus in natural size. 



Tcenia echinococcus. — T. echinococcus develops from the fertile 
echinococcus of food animals and is parasitic in the intestinal 
canal of dogs. On account of its small size (Fig. 164), this tape- 
worm easily escapes observation. We can not, therefore, do> 
otherwise than approve the opinion of the faculty of the Veteri- 
nary Institute at Brussels, as handed down, with regard to the 
admission of dog meat as human food ; viz., that the esophagus, 
stomach and intestines of all slaughtered dogs should be excluded 
from the market. 



(b) Larvae of Pentastomum Tsenioides. 

Nature and Occurrence. — Pentastomum (Linguatula) tcenioides, 
Budolphi, was formerly erroneously classified with the Helminthes, 
but belongs to the mite-like Arachnoidea, a class of Arthropoda. 



514 



INVASION DISEASES 



The sexually mature parasite is from 8 to 20 mm. long and is 
found in the nasal and frontal cavities of the dog, wolf, horse, fox, 
goat and occasionally man ; while the larvae are found in the vis- 
cera of cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, deer, hare and rabbits. Only the 
larvae of Pentastomum tcenioides are of importance in meat inspection. 
These were described by Kudolphi as P. denticulatum under the 
assumption that they were a distinct species. 

History. — The occurrence of pentastomes in domestic animals 
has long been known. Ziirn states that P. tcenioides was discovered 



Fig. 165. 



Fig. 166. 





Larva of Pentastomum tsenioides from 
a mesenteric gland of a beef animal, 
X 15 diameters. (In natural size on 
the left.) 



Pentastomum taenioides from 

the nasal cavity of a dog. 

(Natural size.) 



by Chabert in 1757 in the nasal cavities of horses and dogs and that 
P. denticulatum was discovered a few years later by Abilgaard and 
Frohlich in the viscera of a goat and hare. It was not until 100 
years later, however, that the ontogenetic connection of these two 
forms was established. It was reserved for the brilliant investi- 
gations of Leuckart to demonstrate that P. denticulatum was not a 
distinct species, but merely the larva of P. tosnioides. 



^Morphology and Biology. — According to the statements of 



ANIMAL PARASITES 515 

Xeuckart and Ziirn, the larvae of pentastomum are flat, white, trans- 
parent structures, 4.5 to 5 mm. long and 1.2 to 1.3 mm. broad at 
the widest point. They are divided into about 80 segments which 
are furnished with numerous backwardly-directed bristles or tooth- 
like spines. (Rudolphi, therefore, chose the name denticulatum). 
Underneath the mouth opening there are two slit-like apertures 
on either side, from each of which the points of two claws pro- 
trude. (The name Pentastomum, "five-mouth," was given from the 
erroneous interpretation of these slit-like openings). The sexual 
organs of the larvae are rudimentary (Fig. 165). 

The embryos of P. tamioides are provided with a boring appara- 
tus in the form of a stylus-like spine underneath the mouth open- 
ing. Moreover, on the opposite end of the body of the tail-bearing 
embryo, one observes several spines which serve for locomotion. 
According to Ziirn, the embryos bore through the intestinal wall, 
and, chiefly by means of the circulating blood, migrate under the 
peritoneum into the liver, mesenteric glands, and, in exceptional 
cases, even into the lungs, where they beeome encapsuled and sur- 
rounded by a membrane. 

Statements concerning the further fate of P. denticulatum are at 
variance. Ziirn says that after seven months the parasites become 
somewhat more active; leave their cysts, and make their way into 
the body cavity of their host. Here they await an accident to free 
them " from this prison." If such an accident does not occur, 
they become encysted again, but only to die. On the other hand, 
Gerlach, on the basis of a feeding experiment, holds the view that 
pentastomes do not remain in their host until the death of the 
latter, but that, after the development of their spines and powerful 
claws, they change their location and migrate into the lungs and 
thence into the trachea. Von Ratz agrees with this view condition- 
ally. In a goat which exhibited a cachetic condition, this writer 
observed numerous pentastomes under the peritoneum and also in 
the lungs. In the latter organs the worms had bored deeply into 
the tissue. In another case, a roebuck, the pulmonary pentasto- 
mata were partly encapsuled. Babes calls attention to the fact 
that, in spite of the abundant material which he had occasion to 
examine, he was unable to observe the migration of the pentas- 
tomes described by Gerlach through the lungs and respiratory 
passages. On the contrary, he found a regular migration of the 
parasites into the intestines, whence they were carried out by the 
excrement. Tempel, also, who observed encysted and migrating 
pentastomum larvae in the lungs of a goat, argues against the 



51 G INVASION DISEASES 

assumption of a migration of the parasites through the trachea, 
for the reason that he found the larvae under the pleura, but not 
in the trachea, and not in a single instance in the neighborhood of 
the bronchi. 

Distribution. —Concerning the distribution of the larvae of 
pentastomum, Ziirn states that P. denticulalum is found in horses, 
goats and sheep, more rarely in cattle. Similar statements 
are made by Piitz and Fiiedberger and Frohner. Colin reports 
from France that during the course of 2| months he found pentas- 
tomes in 300 sheep and 1 dromedary. Two years later, Colin 
incidentally mentions cattle also as the host of P. denticidatum. 

Accordingly, in Germany and France, the occurrence of pentas- 
tomum larvae in cattle must be considered as comparatively rare, 
while Babes made the surprising report from Eoumania that he 
found pentastomum larvae in all of 20 steers which had died of 
contagious hemoglobinuria. Babes was inclined to connect this 
finding directly with the disease, but he soon convinced himself 
that in Eoumania, especially in the swampy low-lands of the 
Danube, all cattle are extensively infested with pentastomes. 

On account of their different economic conditions in Eoumania, 
this statement does not necessarily hold true for Germany. How- 
ever, at the Central Abattoir in Berlin, I became convinced that 
even in Germany pentastomes frequently occur in cattle. 

Finally, it should be mentioned that larvae of pentastomum 
may occur also in deer and rabbits and have been observed also 
in two cases in hogs. 

Seat op the Larv^. — According to Ziirn, pentastomum larvae 
are found under the peritoneum, in the liver, in the mesenteric 
glands and, exceptionally, also in the lungs. Von Eatz observed 
them in one of his cases under the peritoneal covering of the liver 
and in the lungs ; in a second case, however, only in the lungs, 
Tempel was also able to demonstrate the parasites only in the 
lungs of a goat. Babes, in his numerous cases, discovered the 
parasites chiefly in the wall of the folds of the small intestines 
and in the mesenteric glands, but also under the serous covering 
of the liver and under the pleura. Thirty years ago Colin called 
attention to. the fact that in cases of ' natural invasion, these para- 
sites are found in the mesenteric glands, while in his feeding experi- 
ments with a large amount of material, the liver and lungs were 
also infested with the worms. The writer has observed pentasto- 



ANIMAL PAEASITES 



517 



mum larvae, as a rule, in the mesenteric glands and in isolated 
cases also in the mediastinal, prescapular, iliac, kneefold and lum- 
bar glands, as well as in the liver and spleen. 

Pathological Anatomy. — Pentastomes produce various altera- 
tions in the mesenteric glands. The most striking alterations are 
foci of yellowish-green or gray color, varying in size from a mil- 
let seed to a pea. They may occur in all parts«of the lymphatic 
glands, but usually lie near the peripheral zone. The smaller 
foci appear round on cross section. The larger are of a more 



Trr, 1' 




Bovine mesenteric gland with calcined pentastome foci. 



irregular form. The consistency of these structures, which are 
plainly distinguished from the surrounding tissue of the lymphatic 
glands, is sometimes that of gruel (in yellow-colored specimens) ; 
sometimes more caseous (in case of green color) ; or, finally, firmer, 
plaster-like, due to the deposition of lime (in gray-colored speci- 
mens). 

Under the microscope one observes intact pentastomes in the 
yellowish and greenish foci, but, in the gray foci, the parasites 
are cloudy as a result; of fatty degeneration and deposition of lime. 
In the yellowish foci, the worms are surrounded by disintegrated 
tissue of the lymphatic glands ; in the greenish foci, by pus cor- 
puscles ; and, in the calcified foci, by detritus and lime deposits. I. 



518 INVASION DISEASES 

have never observed the formation of a capsule in the lymphatic- 
glands, such as regularly occurs in the liver and spleen. Whole 
worms may be absent in a portion of the gray-colored foci, but 
characteristic claws are found as the undoubted remains of dead 
parasites. These claws apparently resist the process of calcifica- 
tion like the hooks of the armed cysticerci. 

According to my investigations, bloody foci in the lymphatic 
glands, such as described by Babes as an almost uniform occur- 
rence around pentastomes, are rare. It is highly probable that 
these hemorrhages were due to the hemoglobinemia with which 
the cattle examined by Babes were affected. Even migrating pen- 
tastomes which had already bored quite large canals in the lympha- 
tic glands lay, in the case which I observed, in the milk-white or 
slightly yellow-colored semi-fluid tissue. 

In contrast with the pentastomes in the lymphatic glands, 
those which are found in the liver and lungs are regularly sur- 
rounded with blood when the parasites are migrating. Encysted 
parasites in these organs are white structures, varying in size 
from a millet seed to a vetch seed. 

Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis. — Old pentastome foci 
in the lymphatic glands closely resemble tuberculous alterations. 

When carefully examined, however, 

there are marked differences between 

jjlk these two conditions. Tubercles are 

sharply delimited from the surround- 

I ing tissue. The most recent tubercles 

' '- possess a cloudy, casefied center and a 

j transparent periphery; older tubercles, 

on the other hand, are almost entirely 

' casefied and of a pronounced yellowish 

WW color. The consistency is like that of 

I moist or dry cheese. As a rule, fresh 

^' . tubercles may be observed around the 

Pentastome claws from a strongly larger tubercles. As contrasted with 

glandf US m a ymP ° tn i s condition only yellowish-colored, 

never deep yellow-colored, foci are 
found in pentastomatosis. Furthermore, these yellow-colored pen- 
tastomes are of a semi-fluid consistency. The pentastome foci,, 
however, which exhibit a more cheesy consistency, are of a greenish 
color. Finally, partially calcified remains of pentastomes are gray, 
while tuberculous foci, even in an advanced stage of calcification, 




ANIMAL PARASITES 519 

retain their yellow color. Young tubercles with casefied centers 
and transparent periphery are not observed in pentastomatosis. 
Finally, by means of a simple teased preparation, the nature of 
pentastome foci may be demonstrated beyond question (demonstra- 
tion of whole larvae or claws, Fig, 168). In this connection I may 
remark that, according to my investigations, pentastomes, after 
migrating, leave smooth cicatrices, but no granules of a tuberculous 
character. 

In distinguishing between pentastomes and tubercles, the 
intermuscular lymph glands are of special significance, since a false 
interpretation of tubercle-like pentastomes in these lymphatic 
glands may lead to an unjust condemnation of whole animals or 
quarters. 

Judgment. — Statistics concerning the frequency of entozoa in 
dogs furnish a convincing proof that after the introduction of meat 
inspection in a locality or country, the number of dogs infested with 
worms diminishes greatly. Deffke demonstrated in Berlin that 
after the introduction of obligatory meat inspection, tapeworms of 
dogs became less frequent. For example, according to Deffke, 
Tcenia marginata, which was formerly quite frequent in Berlin and 
which in Iceland infested 75 per cent, of the dogs (Krabbe), and in 
Saxony, 27 per cent. (Schone), at the end of the 80's was found in 
only 7 per cent, of the dogs which were examined. On the other 
hand, the effect of obligatory meat inspection on pentastomes is not 
yet observable. Pentastomes are still frequent parasites in the dogs 
of Berlin. Deffke found them in 13, or 6.5 per cent., out of 200 
dogs. No doubt can remain that dogs are the source of pentastome 
larvae ; for Deffke calls attention to the fact that it is especially the 
butchers' dogs and dogs used for draft purposes which are infested 
with Pentastomum tcenioides. 

Through intimate association with dogs, man runs the risk of 
becoming infected by the ingestion of pentastome eggs. Zenker in 
Dresden demonstrated the presence of the larvae of Pentastomum 
tcenioides in 4 per cent, of all cadavers which were examined by him. 
In one case (Laudon) a developed pentastomum was observed in 
man. Occasionally, also, organs infested with pentastomes may 
have an injurious effect. As a rule, however, this is not the case, 
and for this reason organs infested with pentastome foci can not in 
general be considered as dangerous food material. 

In order to prevent further distribution of pentastomes, Ziirn 
recommends "careful examination of food animals in which 



C20 INVASION DISEASES 

Pentastomum denticulatum may be found. If this parasite is found, 
especially in the livers and mesenteric glands of goats and sheep, or 
in .the peritoneal cavity of rabbits and hare, it should be imme- 
diately destroyed, preferably by burning." According to the 
investigations of the writer, meat inspectors should give especial 
attention to the mesenteric glands of cattle and sheep. It is a 
difficult matter to burn all viscera infested with pentastomes. 
Fortunately, however, this is not absolutely necessary. By far the 
greater proportion of the mesenteries are rendered in the prepara- 
tion of tallow and in the manufacture of soap. The possibility of 
the transmission of pentastome larva? to dogs is thereby excluded, 
so that it is only necessary to condemn the more extensively 
infested mesenteric glands in all cases in which the above men- 
tioned utilization is permitted. This should be practiced in the 
case of the infected lymphatic glands of poor mesenteries which are 
not rendered out. 



APPENDIX. 



1.— Protozoa. 

In the skeletal musculature, esophagus, mucous membranes of 
the stomach and intestines, as well as in the liver of our food 
animals, various parasites occur which belong to the lowest known 
animal forms, Protozoa, and which were formerly quite generally 
characterized as Gregarinidse, or psorosperms. These names, how- 
ever, are not in accordance with zoological nomenclature. 

According to zoological classification, the parasites in question 
belong to the second subdivision of Protozoa, or Sporozoa. Under 
this name Leuckart, in 1879, included a number of unrelated 
unicellular parasites which form spores with shells. According to 
Braun, Sporozoa are divided into several orders, of which the 
following are of importance for meat inspection : Coccidia, 
Myxosporidia, Sarcosporidia and Hematosporidia. 

Sarcosporidia and Hematosporidia are the most important 
orders for meat inspection. The , Coccidia play a much less 
important role in food animals, and the Myxosporidia occur only in 
fish and lower animals. 



PROTOZOA 



521 



(a) Coccidia. 

The Coccidia are parasites of epitlielia. They are small, 
spherical or oval structures, which destroy the epithelial cells by 
their rapid growth and then divide into a number of parts. These 
j)enetrate into the intact epitlielia of the infested organ (merozoites) 
or become chauged into microgametes and macrogametes (male and 
female sexual cells). By the copulation of these forms, sporoblasts 
are produced and, fiually, permanent forms with shells (sporozoites) 
arise. The latter cause infestation of new hosts. The following 
forms belong to the Coccidia : 

1. Coccidium Oviforme (Leuckart). — The sporoblasts are 
elongated, oval and surrounded by a double membrane ; length, 0.03 



Fig. 170 



Fig. 169. 




Sporoblasts of Coccidium 
oviforme from a rabbit liver. 




Rabbit liver with cocciclial foci. 



to .04 mm.; width, .015 to .028 mm. At first, the protoplasm fills 
the whole inside of the parasites with a coarsely granular mass, but 
soon becomes contracted into a sphere from which four sporozoites 
arise. 

C. oviforme is found in rabbits in the epithelium of the bile duct 
and produces coccidiosis of the rabbit liver. Occasionally 
coccidiosis of the liver is observed in man. 

Coccidiosis of the rabbit liver is characterized macroscopically 
by the appearance of abscess-like foci which are white in color and 
roundish in form. Root-like projections are observed on the larger 
tubercles which correspond to the pathologically-altered bile ducts 
(Fig. 170). By examination of cross sections it is seen that the 
abscess-like structures are formed of greatly distended bile ducts, 



522 



INVASION DISEASES 



partly fused together, which are sharply delimited from the almost 
unaltered hepatic tissue by means of fibrous connective tissue and 
contain immense numbers of coccidia, besides epithelial detritus. 

The process begins with the invasion of the coccidia into the 
epithelia of the bile ducts. The epithelial cells which are attacked 
by the coccidia are destroyed. Later a marked hyperplasia of the 
epithelia and a papillary proliferation of the bile ducts arise, so that 
these structures do not represent simple canals, but much-branched 
cavities (Fig. 171). 

Fig. 171. 





Red dysentery of cattle. Coccidia in 
the mucosa of the large intestine. 
X 1,200 diameters, b-d, various 
developmental stages. At a and 
b the cell nucleus is visible. (After 
Zschokke). 



Coccidiosis of the rabbit liver. Section through the 
cortical part of a coccidial focus. Papillary hyper- 
plasia and enlargement of the bile ducts due to 
localization of the parasites. 



Coccidia in the Liver of Hogs. — Johne described cyst-like cavities 
with cloudy, chocolate-colored fluid contents in the liver of a hog 
and was able to demonstrate coccidia in them. I have also found 
these foci quite frequently in the liver of hogs and can corroborate 
the statements of Johne on this point. As a rule, we find isolated 
tubercles varying in size from a pea to a walnut, with tough con- 
nective tissue walls and pronounced radiate cirrhosis in the 
surrounding tissue. Occasionally, however, the whole liver is 
permeated with such tubercles and the tissue becomes cirrhotic in 
toto. The inner surface of the wall of the cyst shows evaginations 
and the above-described discolored and rather scanty contents 



PROTOZOA 523- 

always exhibit unicellular sporozoa, but in small numbers. Johne 
leaves the question unsettled whether these structures are identical 
with Coccidium oviforme or not. 

2. Coccidium Perfobans (Leuckart). — The sporoblasts of C. 
perforans are smaller and more spherical than those of C. oviforme 
(0.017 to .024 mm. long and .012 to .014 mm. wide). According to 
Bieck, they are distinguished from those of the latter chiefly by 
the fact that in the division of the protoplasm to form the four 
sporozoites a portion of it remains as the "residual division cor- 
puscle." 

Coccidium perforans is found in the intestinal epithelia of 
rabbits and produces a desquamative catarrh of the whole intestinal 
tract characterized by a profuse diarrhea. Moreover, C. perforans 
or a related species occurs in the intestinal epithelium of sheep and 
calves. 

Bed Dysentery of Cattle.— In the Swiss Cantons, Lucerne and 
Bern, a peculiar disease of an epizootic nature occurs in cattle, 
especially in young stall-fed animals, which has been described 
by Zschokke as "red dysentery" (" dysenteria hemorrhagica 
coccidiosa," Hess). This name was chosen on account of the con- 
stant bloody discharges observed in this disease. In the epithelium 
of the granulated or longitudinally folded mucous membrane of the 
colon in the animals, Zschokke demonstrated spherical or oval 
coccidia, or 0.01 to .22 mm. in diameter. They were homogenous 
and strongly refractive and with a double contour. After staining 
with anilin stains, nuclei may be demonstrated which may be 
three times as large as those of the epithelial cells. The finding of 
Zschokke has been confirmed by Hess and Guillebeau. Guillebeau 
is of the opinion that the coccidium of red dysentery is C. oviforme. 

Judgment. — Zschokke and Hess call attention to the fact that 
the meat of animals subjected to emergency slaughter on account of 
red dysentery is always admitted to the market and is eaten without 
any bad results. The meat, however, possesses the character of a 
spoiled (inferior) food material and is, therefore, to be sold under 
declaration. 

C. tenellum occurs in fowls and may produce an epizootic, 
croupous, diphtheritic enteritis, during which, according to Rieck, 
small disintegration foci caused by invasion of coccidia appear in 
the mesenteric glands. 



524 INVASION DISEASES 

Chicken Pox. — " Chicken . pox " is a disease of the mucous 
membrane of the head and neck and of the general integument of 
fowls, and is characterized by the formation of tubercles. The 
disease begins with a catarrh of the mucous membrane of the head 
in the further course of which wart-like proliferations appear on 
the mucous membrane. The pathological processes ^spread from 
the mucous membrane of the head to the skin, on which, especially 
on the unfeathered areas, miliary to bean-sized neomorphs are 
formed (epithelioma contagiosum, Bollinger). The dermal epithe- 
liomata are at first gray, often shining like mother-of-pearl, firm, 
and furnished with a smooth surface. Later they become covered 
with a scab. Rivolta and Silvestri consider coccidia to be the cause 
of this readily transmissible epizootic disease. In the proliferating 
epithelial cells strongly refractive homogeneous corpuscles are 
observed which stain yellow with picrocarmine and are thereby 
readily distinguished from the epithelial cells, which stain brownish 
red. Croupous, diphtheritic deposits may arise on the proliferating 
portions of the mucous membrane (gregarious form of avian 
diphtheria, according to Friedberger and Frohner). The disease 
may become so extensive on the mucous membrane of the head that 
the animals are no longer able to close the beak, take nourishment 
or breathe. According to more recent investigations, "chicken 
pox " is said to be due to bacteria. 

"Chicken pox" is a local disease of certain parts of the head 
and neck and has no effect upon the food qualities of the other 
parts of the animal. The customary removal of the head and 
neck, together with the trachea and esophagus, is sufficient to 
permit the admission of the animals to market without any re- 
striction. The carcasses of fowls affected with epitheliomata are 
to be excluded from the market as highly spoiled (unfit) food 
material only in cases where symptoms of general disease have 
appeared as a result of mechanical hindrances to the ingestion 
of food or respiration. Pigeons affected with epitheliomata dis- 
tributed over the .whole body are to be judged in the same 
manner. 

Coccidia in the Fourth Stomach and Intestines of Sheep. — Maske 
demonstrated coccidia very frequently (in 70 per cent, of the 
inspected stomachs) in the epithelium of the mucous membrane of 
the fourth stomach of sheep, especially in the depths of the folds of 
the mucous membrane. The sporoblasts of these coccidia are 
comparatively large and are surrounded with a double contoured, 



PKOTOZOA 



525 



strongly refractive capsule. The coccidia caused tubercles of the 
size of a pinhead. 

For Spiridenitis coccidiosa (granular eruption of hogs), com- 
pare page 270. 

(b) Myxosporidia. 

Myxosporidia are parasitic chiefly in fish. A large number of 
species are known. Myxosporidia are usually surrounded with a 
tough cuticula, and contain numerous nuclei. The size varies from 
microscopic smallness to the volume of a hazel nut. The location 
is sometimes free in the body cavities, sometimes in the viscera, 
gills, muscles and dermal epithelium. 




Barbel with myxosporidial tumors due to Myxobolus pfeifferi (Doflein). 



Among the numerous species of myxosporidia, the most inter- 
esting one for us is Myxobolus pfeifferi, which may produce the 
epizootic death of barbel. An epizootic myxosporidiosis of the 
barbel was first observed in the Mosel in 1870, whence it spread to 
the Maas, Meurte, Rhine, Marne and Seine. In 1890, Ludwig 
Pfeiffer investigated the disease which had broken out in this 
region and found myxosporidia in the muscles of diseased barbel. 
The affected fish were sluggish, scarcely able to swim against the 
current, and exhibited discolored swellings of the skin (Fig. 173) 
and crater-like ulcers on the head, body and tail. Immense num- 
bers of the myxosporidia were found in the ulcers, their primary 
location being in the muscle cells. Pfeiffer found the other organs 
of barbel to be free from myxosporidia, while, in the tench, the gall 
bladder, swimming bladder, spleen and arteries were affected. The 
pathologico-anatomical processes in an invasion of myxosporidia in 



526 



INVASION DISEASES 



barbels were carefully studied by Thelohan. According to his 
investigations, the invasion of myxosporidia causes a hyaline 
degeneration of the muscle fibers, which become disintegrated and 
are replaced by connective tissue. Thus it comes about that finally 
one finds the spores of the myxosporidia surrounded by fibrous 
cysts. The frequently observed eruption of tumors on the body of 
barbels and the evacuation of a pus-like spore-containing mass is 
due to the secondary localization of a large bacterial organism 
described by L. Pfeiffer, which finds favorable conditions for its 
development in the degenerated muscle tissue of barbels affected 
with myxosporidia. The bacterial organism in question appears to 
possess pathogenic properties. 



Fig. 174. 




Tench with "skin pox." 

Myxoholus cyprini occurs in the kidneys of carp and tench. In 
affected fish, white cartilaginous thickenings of epidermis (" pox 
marks") occur, in which, however, strange to say, no organisms are 
found (Hofer and Doflein). 

Judgment of Coccidia and Myxosporidia. — Nothing is yet 
known concerning the injurious effect of eating organs which are 
infested with coccidia and myxosporidia. Practically no careful 
investigations have been made on this subject, and until this ques- 
tion is settled, we must exclude from the market all organs affected 
with coccidia and myxosporidia. This method of procedure is 
justified by the alterations which extensive invasions produce in 
affected parts. In the myxosporidial disease of the barbel, we 
should also remember that even uninfested parts of the diseased 
fish are discolored yellow, are of a gelatinous consistency and 
assume a more or less conspicuous bitter taste on cooking. 



PROTOZOA 



527 



(c) Sarcosporidia. 

General Characters. — In 1884 Balbiani characterized as sar- 
cosporidia the parasites which had previously been known under 
the name of Miescher's sacs in the musculature of warm-blooded 
animals. Sarcosporidia are elongated or oval structures which 
have their seat either in the muscle fibers (Miescheridae), or in the 
connective tissue (Balbianidse). Some of the former are sur- 
rounded by a thin structureless membrane (Miescheria) ; others 
possess a thick membrane provided with transverse striae or bristles 
(Sarcocystis, Blanchard). 

Fig. 175. 



Fig. 176. 





End of a Miescher's sac with contents. 
At the side, sporozoites greatly mag- 
nified. (Leuckart.) 



Meischer's sac from the musculature 
of a hog, X 30 diameters. 



According to Bertram, whose brilliant investigations con- 
tributed greatly to a better knowledge of the sarcosporidia, one 
finds the youngest forms as small sacs consisting of a surrounding; 
membrane, and round or oval cells. From these the sporoblast 
mother cells are formed and from the latter in turn the sporoblasts. 
In the meantime the surrounding membrane becomes two-layered. 
From its inner layer a supporting substance develops around the 
sporoblasts and also the cells which are later formed from the 
layer out of which arise the sporozoites, formerly known as sickle- 
shaped corpuscles. The whole sac is thereby divided into a sys- 
tem of chambers which contain sporozoites in the form of balls. 



528 



INVASION DISEASES 



According to Braun, the sporozoites of sarcosporidia are very 
small, apparently membraneless corpuscles, with a nucleus, and 
often with one or two transparent spots. The form is elongated, 
C-shaped, or fusiform and clavate (Fig. 176). 

The function of the sarcosporidia is completed with the forma- 
tion of the sporozoites. They may then disintegrate, while, as 
assumed by Bertram, the sporozoites become disintegrated in the 
central chambers. So long as the surrounding membrane is unin- 
jured, the cyst persists, and in its chambers a granular detritus is 
found, together with a few sporozoites which are still preserved. 
If the necrotic process attacks also the surrounding membrane, 
leucocytes may apparently penetrate into the sac. Finally, the 
sacs may calcify. 




Sarcosporidia from the abdominal musculature of a sheep. Natural size. 



To the Miescheridse belong Miescher's sacs, so widely dis- 
tributed in the musculature of herbivorous and omnivorous ani- 
mals. These are observed most frequently in the skeletal muscu- 
lature of hogs and sheep ; also in horses, cattle, goats, deer, dogs, 
hare and chickens. Miescher's sacs become located inside the 
striated muscle fibers in their long axis. The elongated smaller 
specimens exhibit throughout the surrounding tissue a layer of 
striated substance of varying thickness (Fig. 175). In the case of 
larger specimens, on the other hand, the striated substance dis- 
appears as far as the distended sarcolemma. The size varies. 
Bertram observed Miescher's sacs which were only 0.04 mm. long 



PROTOZOA 529 

and .006 mm. wide. When fully developed, they are 0.5 to 3 mm. 
long and of various widths up to 0.4 mm. 

Special Features in Various Food Animals. — Miescher's sacs 
(Sarcocystis 3Iiescheriana, Kiihn) are quite regularly found incident- 
ally during the microscopic inspection of pork. Kiihn found these 
parasites in 98 per cent, of the hogs which he inspected. When 
Miescher's sacs are ' completely or even partially calcined, they 
may be detected with the naked eye. Calcification begins in the 
middle of the sac in the form of irregular masses of lime deposits, 
which, from their reaction to acids, must be considered as consist- 
ing principally of calcium carbonate. Occasionally delicately 
twisted and coiled lime deposits are observed in Miescher's sacs 
resembling the appearance of primarily calcified trichinae. In cases 
of total calcification, Miescher's sacs, when examined macroscopi- 
cally, appear to be white, but under the microscope they appear 
as dark, almost black, structures. Calcified Miescher's sacs form 
one kind of so-called calcareous concretions in the musculature 
of hogs. 

With regard to the seat of Miescher's sacs in hogs, it should 
be stated that they may occur in all striated muscles, in the myo- 
cardium as well as in the skeletal muscles. As a rule, however, in 
hogs, the abdominal muscles and muscular portion of the dia- 
phragm appear to be more extensively infested than the other 
muscles. 

In sheep, Miescher's sacs reach a larger size than in hog» 
(Fig. 177). Quite frequently one observes sacs which show a 
length of 1| cm. and a maximum width of 0.3 mm.* In the sheep> 
also sarcosporidia appear to be almost uniformly present. At any 
rate Bertram observed them in Rostock in 182 out of 185 sheep 
inspected at that place. One observes macroscopically-visible 
parasites in the dermal and abdominal muscles, as should be stated 
in opposition to the assertion of Bertram, according to which the 
larger sarcosporidial forms are found in sheep only in the mus- 
cles of the tongue, esophagus, pharynx and larynx. According to 
Bertram, macroscopically-visible forms may be demonstrated in 
the muscles of the head and neck and in the intercostal, diaphrag- 
matic, abdominal and lumbar muscles, as well as in the heart. 

In horses, macroscopically-visible Miescher's sacs appear most 
commonly in the musculature of the esophagus and neck. With 

* The largest sarcosporidia are found in the fallow deer. Thus, Manz 
reports sarcosporidia in this animal more than 6 cm. long. 



530 INVASION DISEASES 

regard to the distribution of Miescher's sacs in the horse, the state- 
ment of Siedamgrotzky is interesting, to the effect that he was 
able to demonstrate these parasites in the majority of horses 
which he inspected for this purpose in Dresden. Csokor in 
Vienna inspected 241 horses and found 10 per cent, infested with 
them. 

In cattle, one occasionally observes that the musculature is 
infested with roundish or elongated foci of a yellowish or dirty 
ground color, varying in size from a millet seed to a kernel of 
rye. When examined under the microscope they are found to be 
Miescher's sacs. These foci may be present in very large num- 
bers in the whole musculature. Sanfelice asserts that he regularly 
observed sarcosporidia in the tongue of Sicilian cattle. 

Pathogenic Importance of Miescher's Sacs. — In isolated 
cases, which, however, require further explanation, Miescher's sacs 
are said to have caused inflammatory phenomena in the muscula- 
ture. On account of their rare occurrence, however, these cases 
have only a slight importance for us. As a rule, Miescher's sacs 
heal in the muscle fibers without reaction (Fig. 175). 

Rieck described a case in which he assumed the pathogenic 
action of Miescher's sacs. This case was a beef animal which had 
exhibited no pathological symptoms during life, but which, after 
slaughter, presented hard tumors varying in size from that of a 
fist to that of a child's head in nearly all muscles, especially in the 
muscles of the abdomen, back, shoirlder and thigh. Under the 
microscope, extensive infiltration of the perimysium internum and 
externum with small cells was observed in those parts which were 
affected with the first stages of the disease. In addition to the 
leucocytes, isolated, membranous, round structures, with a perfectly 
homogeneous body, were observed in the muscle fibers. In the sec- 
ond stage a chronic interstitial inflammation was present, together 
with sarcosporidia in the muscle fibers; and in a third stage, a 
granular disintegration was observed in the muscle fibers infested 
by sarcosporidia. ' 

A similar case was observed by Piitz in the horse. He, how- 
ever, left the question undecided whether or not the pathological 
alterations (interstitial myositis) were due to the presence of the not 
very numerous Miescher's sacs. 

As is well known, Miescher's sacs have also been considered as 
the cause of the muscle tumors in horses known by the name of 
" ice balls." 



PROTOZOA 531 

In slaughtering a steer which had shown a stiff gait during life, 
Tokarenko found the musculature pale-red and exhibiting yellow 
«tripes and spots at certain points. The intermuscular tissue 
showed a serous infiltration and small hemorrhages were observed 
in the musculature of the posterior extremities. Microscopic 
examination demonstrated the presence of an immense number of 
Miescher's sacs, especially in the muscles of the thigh. The muscle 
fibrillpe appeared pale ; the transverse striation in some parts was 
totally obliterated, and a granular disintegration had appeared in 
its place. 

Differential Diagnosis. — Intact Miescher's sacs should 
scarcely give occasion to confusion with other phenomena in the 
musculature. Nevertheless, calcified sacs in hogs have frequently 
been mistaken for calcified trichinae. For the differentiation of 
calcified trichinae from calcified Miescher's sacs, see page 540. 

Judgment of Sarcosporidia. — From a sanitary police stand- 
point, sarcosporidia are to be judged somewhat differently than 
coccidia and myxosporidia. For, in the first place, they produce 
no striking alterations in the affected organs. Furthermore, it has 
been proved that sarcosporidia are an exceedingly rare occurrence 
in the muscles of man. From the fact of their unusual occurrence 
in food animals, it can not be assumed that .sarcosporidia can be 
transmitted to man by eating meat. 

Quite recently, Rosenberg described a case of " undoubted 
Miescher's sacs " in the heart of a man, and, in this connection, 
called attention to three cases which were described in 1863 by the 
Russian scientist, Lindermann. As contrasted, however, with the 
almost constant occurrence of Miescher's sacs in domestic animals, 
such cases must be considered as rare. 

L. Pfeiffer asserts that feeding experiments with Miescher's 
sacs in hogs, sheep, dogs and rabbits have given negative results. 
Moreover, he is of the opinion that muscle infections, analogous to 
those in hogs, have not been observed -with certainty in man. In 
the cases of alleged sarcosporidial, acute, progressive polymyositis, 
described by Unverricht, it is stated that neither Miescher's sacs 
nor the crescent forms were found. 

In the practice of meat inspection, it is quite customary to 
disregard the ordinary slight invasions of Miescher's sacs in hogs 
and to admit the meat of such animals to market without restric- 
tion. This practice is justified so long as the musculature shows no 



532 



INVASION DISEASES 



Fig. 178. 



macroscopically-recognizable alterations, and this is the usual case. 
Exceptionally, however, the meat must be considered as spoiled 
(inferior) food material, in case calcification has appeared in many 
of the Miescher's sacs ; and the meat must be considered as highly 
unfit for food in case the musculature is greatly altered ; for 
example, with yellow or green spots or gray discolorations and 
watery as a result of extensive invasion of Miescher's sacs. In the 
last-named cases, the meat loses the quality of human food, for it is 
exceedingly repulsive and unappetizing. The case is different with 
hogs in which numerous Miescher's sacs appear as- 
calcareous concretions (Fig. 183). In such cases 
the meat has, to be sure, lost somewhat in proteid 
content on account of the lime deposits, but aside 
from the calcified parasitic foci, the musculature 
possesses a normal consistency and color, and, as a 
rule, also an unaltered fat content. For these 
reasons no objection can be made to the sale of 
such meat under declaration. If the occurrence of 
"calcified Miescher's sacs is restricted to certain 
muscle groups, only these muscles are to be treated 
as spoiled (inferior) food material. 

Sheep in which more or less numerous sai co- 
sporidia of macroscopic size are found in all of the 
muscle groups, are to be excluded from free sale on 
account of their inferior quality, and, under certain 
conditions, are to be absolutely excluded from the 
market. If, however, the parasites are restricted to 
certain muscle groups (for example, dermal and 
abdominal muscles) the meat may be admitted to 

Balbianidae from the market after removal of these parts, 
the esophagus of 
a sheep. 

Balbianidce. — The sarcosporidia which occur so 

frequently in the interfibrillar tissue of the esophagus in sheep 

and goats and which in some years are present in almost every 

individual, belong to the family Balbianidse. Railliet gave this 

parasite the name Balbiania gigantea* They present white sacs 

filled with pus-like contents, varying in size from a millet seed to 





* Bertram held the opinion chat the small sarcosporidia which occur in sheep 
(Sarcocystis tenella, Railliet) and Balbiania gigantea, were merely different 
stages of one and the same species. He believed that at first the parasites were 
found in the muscle fibers, while later they grew through the sarcolemma and irL 
this manner became transformed into psorosperm sacs. 



protozoa 533 

a hazel nut (psorosperm sacs), which are often found to the num- 
ber of several dozen in a single esophagus. Morot found them 
present to the number of 227 in one esophagus. In addition to this 
location, the Balbianiclse have their seat also in the connective 
tissue of the lingual and laryngeal musculature, as well as in the 
thoracic and abdominal muscles. 

Judgment. — Formerly the esophagus -was not utilized for food. 
Since, however, it has come to be so used — less scrupulous butchers 
utilize the " gullet meat " of sheep in the preparation of sausage — 
it becomes the duty of meat inspectors to condemn all esophagi 
infested with Balbianidse and to render them innocuous. By this 
•means also the further distribution of the disease would be corre- 
spondingly prevented. 

(d) Hematosporidia. 

The Hematosporidia, the relationship of which to the Sporozoa 
is not yet established with certainty, are unicellular parasites of the 
red blood corpuscles of vertebrates. The first Hematosporidia were 
observed by Gaule in 1880 in frogs, tritons and turtles. In the 
same year Laveran made his epoch-making discovery that unicellu- 
lar motile parasites occur also in the blood of malarial patients. 
The Hematosporidia acquired importance for veterinary science 
through the classical investigations of the American author, Theo- 
bald Smith, on the subject of Texas fever, in which Hematosporidia 
were likewise found and demonstrated beyond question to be the 
cause of the disease. 

Texas Fever. — On the subject of Texas fever, we owe to Smith 
and his co-worker, Kilborne, the following data : 

Home of the Disease. — In the southern United States the station- 
ary focus for Texas fever is found in a wide zone extending from 
the Gulf of Mexico to 37° or 38° north latitude. The native cattle 
of this region are apparently healthy. If, however, cattle from 
northern regions mingle with these apparently healthy animals, the 
former fall ill of the plague. If cattle from the infested territory- 
pass over the northern or southern boundary line, they may carry 
the disease with them. The incubation stage is about fifty days. 

Clinical Symptoms. — The first symptom of the disease is a high 
fever (40.5° to 42° C). An acute anemia rapidly follows this stage. 
Clinical hemoglobinuria is rare. The latter, for the most part, is 



534 



INVASION DISEASES 



Fig. 179. 



demonstrated on post mortem.* The fever persists until death or 
recovery. At the crisis of the fever, one-eighth to one-sixth of the 
red blood corpuscles are destroyed within twenty-four hours. After 
the temperature falls, however, their regeneration takes place 
rapidly. 

Pathologico-anatomical Findings. — Upon making a post-mortem 
examination one finds red-colored urine in 
the bladder (hemoglobinuria). The kidneys 
are dark, brownish-red, or, if the period of 
hemoglobinuria is passed, they are pale- 
brown and soft. A bloody edema is observed 
in the perirenal fat tissue. The spleen is 
enlarged from two to five times its normal 
size and is of a dark-red color. The liver 
is swollen and either filled with blood (in 
the first stage) or poor in blood and dis- 
colored yellowish. Petechise under the epi- 
cardium and endocardium ; bloody erosions 
on the mucosa of the fourth stomach ; in the 
small intestines, on the other hand, oleaceous 
deposits which consist of sloughed-off epithelial cells. 

Etiology. — As the cause of the disease, Smith discovered pro-, 
tozoan micro-organisms of a pale color and exhibiting amoeboid 
movements at a temperature of 24° C. These organisms live inside 




' ®I§ 



Texas fever. Cover glass 
preparation from the 
spleen pulp of a beef 
animal, with quite num- 
erous intraglobular par- 
asites, X 900 diameters. 
(After Smith.) 



Fig. 180. 







Texas fever. Different forms of Piroplasma bigeminum due to amoeboid movements. 
c and d still possess nuclei; d shows the pear-shape characteristic of the acute 
Much enlarged. (After Smith.) 



the red blood corpuscles and pass through several developmental 
phases there. According to Smith, the parasite, called by him 
JPyrosoma bigeminum, is, in mild forms of the disease, small, round- 
ish, coccus-like ; in the acute, summer forms, however, it is larger 



*This account is based on the investigations of Smith and Kilborne (Bulletin 
1, Bureau of Animal Industry, Department of Agriculture). Later investiga- 
tions, however, have shown that hemoglobinuria is a characteristic clinical 
symptom, especially in severe cases, terminating fatally. — Translator's Note. 



PROTOZOA 



535 



(2.5 to 4 fx long and 1.5 to 2 /* broad) ; amoeboid, and in the fully 
developed condition pyroform in shape.* 

Demonstration of Parasites. — In the circulating blood these 
structures are found usually in only one or two, or, at nio^t, 10 
per cent, of the red blood corpuscles. The capillary blood of dead 
animals is more extensively infected, the blood of the renal capil- 
laries being most infected, in which location as many as 80 per 

Fig. 181 






Texas fever. Boophilus bovis. a, recently hatched young tick, X 40 diameters; 
b, sexually mature male, X 10 diameters; c, sexually mature female, X 10 dia- 
meters. (After Smith.) 



cent, of the erythrocytes contain the parasitic organism. For 
demonstrating Texas fever parasites, air-dried cover-glass prepara- 
tions are kept in a hot-air incubator for from one to one and one- 
half hours at a temperature of 110° to 120° C, then stained for 
one-half to two minutes with alkaline-methylene blue, washed with 
water, dipped momentarily into 1 per cent, acetic acid, and again 
washed with water. In doubtful cases, the staining method of 
Romanowsky gives good satisfaction (with polychromic methylene- 



* Wandolek changed the name of the organism of Texas fever to Apiosoma 
bigeminum, since Pyrosoma is preempted for a genus of Tunicates. As noted 
by Stiles, however, even the name chosen by Wandolek is not free. It is sug- 
gested, therefore, that the name proposed by Patten, Piroplasma bigeminnm, is 
the proper species name for the parasitic organism of Texas fever. 



53G INVASION DISEASES 

blue, to which eosine is added until precipitation begins to take 
place, and differentiation with water slightly acidified with acetic 
acid). The Texas fever parasites then appear blue and the red 
blood corpuscles red. 

Method of Infection. — The disease is transmissible by inoculat- 
ing the blood of infected cattle into other cattle. Inoculation with 
the blood of apparently healthy cattle from the infected region 
also produces the disease, for these animals regularly contain 
intraglobular parasites in small numbers. Babbits, guinea pigs, 
pigeons and sheep are immune. Under natural conditions, the 
infection is produced by means of ticks (Ixodes bovis, Riley ; s. 
Boophihis bovis, Curtice). The eggs of these ticks are laid in pas- 
tures. The young ticks hatch in from two to six weeks, attach 
themselves to cattle, attain sexual maturity, and, after about 23 
days, fall off for the purpose of depositing their eggs. The period 
of incubation, therefore, includes the time necessary for the develop- 
ment of young ticks out of females which have dropped (about 
30 days), and the true incubation period of the disease (10 to 15 
days). 

Judgment. — Thus far, nothing is known concerning any disease 
in man due to eating the meat of cattle affected with Texas fever. 
Nevertheless, the meat of such animals is to be withheld from the 
market and rendered innocuous, for the possibility is by no means 
excluded that Texas fever may be distributed by means of meat 
traffic. Texas fever, therefore, possesses chiefly a veterinary police 
interest. In cases of the introduction of American cattle, the 
officials of the veterinary police should give special attention to this 
disease, which in 1894 was introduced into Hamburg by means of a 
transport loaded with American beef cattle, and caused all the 
States of the European continent to prohibt the introduction of 
American cattle. 

Recent Investigations Concerning' the Nature and Occurrence of 

Texas Fever. 

Weisser and Maassen confirmed the belief that Texas fever 
was introduced into Hamburg by the importation of American 
cattle. They demonstrated the parasites discovered by Smith in 
smear preparations from the kidneys, spleen, liver, lymphatic 
glands and heart, but found them in greatest numbers in the capil- 
laries of the kidneys and myocardium. The spherical structures 
fowud in the majority of the red blood corpuscles sometimes 



PEOTOZOA 537 

Tesemble large cocci or diplococci. As a rule, there was only one 
spherical parasite in each red blood corpuscle, but in many cases 
there were two, and then they possessed a somewhat elongated, 
occasionally pyriform, shape. The parasites stained fairly well 
with the ordinary basic auilin dyes. The elongated forms, how- 
ever, take the stain actively only in the wider ends. Good results 
were obtained on sections by the use of hematoxylin, methylene- 
olue and gentian violet, the latter in dilute solutions for a period 
of 24 hours. 

R. Koch demonstrated that Texas fever occurs also in coast 
regions of German East Africa and that in this country also it is 
transmitted by ticks as in America. Koch confirmed the essential 
statements of Smith and Kilborne, but found the pyroform phase 
of the parasite even in mild cases of the disease. 

According to Smith, the epizootic hemoglobinuria of Rou- 
manian cattle, investigated by Babes, and the red water which 
occurs in South Africa, are related or identical with Texas fever. 
According to Starcovici, the epizootic of sheep investigated by 
Babes and called " carceag," belongs to Texas fever. Bonome in 
Padua found an endoglobular " amcebosporidium " in a disease 
characterized by him as "parasitic ictero-hematuria of sheep.'* 
However, according to Babes, the disease investigated by Bonome 
is nothing more than carceag. 

Furthermore, the same findings as in Texas fever have been 
made by Sanfelice and Loi in hematuria of Sardinian cattle ; by 
Celli and Santori in bovine malaria of the Campagna of Rome ; by 
Krogius, von Hellens and Kossel in an epizootic hemoglobinuria of 
Finnish cattle ; and by Laveran and Nicolle in an epizootic of 
sheep which is prevalent in the vicinity of Constantinople. Texas 
fever is widely distributed also in Australia. 

Finally, according to the investigation of Jackschath and von 
Niemann, it must be assumed that the so-called bloody urine of 
cattle, which is enzootic in Germany, is a disease etiologically 
related to Texas fever. 

Diseases Caused by Infusoria. 

(a) Nagana and Surra Disease. —The nagana and surra dis- 
ease has been known for a long time in South Africa and India and 
has recently been identified by R. Koch in German East Africa. 
The disease, as shown by Brnce, is caused by a parasite which, 
lives in the blood of the affected animals and which is transmitted 



538 



INVASION DISEASES 



from one animal to another by biting insects ; in South Africa and' 
in Togo, by the tsetse fly (tsetse disease). The parasite does not, 
like the parasite of Texas fever, belong to the sporozoa, but rather 
to the infusoria, particularly to the trypanosomata (flagellate infu- 
soria). It is two to three times as long as the diameter of a red 
blood corpuscle, has a fish-like form, and progresses with active 
sinuous motions between the red blood cells (Fig. 182). It is color- 
less, but takes anilin stains. The incubation period is from nine 
to eleven days. The onset of the disease may be recognized by 
the increase of bodily temperature and the appearance of parasites 
in the blood. Other characteristic symptoms do not appear. The 

Fig. 182. 




Trypanosoma of surra between red blood corpuscles. (After R. Koch.) 

animals either die quickly with great depression, anemia and ema- 
ciation, or they become affected with the chronic form and die after 
several months. 

Surra has been observed in cattle, horses and also in camels and 
elephants. 

Judgment. — According to R. Koch, restrictions on the traflic in 
the meat of animals affected with surra are not necessary. In Ger- 
man East Africa it frequently occurs that an animal affected with 
surra has been slaughtered and eaten without the slightest injurious 
effect. 



(b) Dourine. — Schneider and Buffard found the cause of dourine 
to be trypanosomata, which resemble the organisms of surra and 



CALCAREOUS CONCRETIONS 539- 

tsetse fly diseases. The trypanosomata are 20 to 30 /* long, 1.5 to 
2 fx wide, and may be easily transmitted to horses, dogs, rabbits, 
rats, mice and asses by subcutaneous or subdural injection, through 
the conjunctival sac, or by copulation. 



2. — So-Called Calcareous Concretions in the Musculature of 

the Hog. 

Meaning of the Term. — The term " calcareous concretions" 
is not appropriate, since we do not have to deal with pure lime de- 
posit or calcareous concretions, but with calcified (petrified) animal 
parasites. It would, therefore, be more appropriate to speak of 
"calcified parasites" instead of "calcareous concretions" in the 
musculature. However, the term has become established in meat 
inspection and may as well be retained. 

General Eemarks on the Size, Occurrence and Principal 
Locations. — Calcareous concretions in the musculature of hogs may 
be of microscopic size, but as a rule they attain such size that they 
may be detected with the naked eye ; their number varies exceed- 
ingly in individual cases. One observes all intermediate conditions 
between a few and innumerable calcifications. Hogs are sometimes 
observed in which the musculature appears to be literally sprinkled 
and permeated with white dots or tubercles. The chief location in 
cases where only a few calcifications are present varies, according to 
the nature of the parasites which furnish the basis of the calcifica- 
tion. In general, however, the abdominal muscles, muscular 
portion of the diaphragm, as well as the semi-membranosus 
(adductor magnus), which is exposed to view in the ordinary method 
of cutting up, are to be considered as the chief locations. 

Etiology. — The following organisms lead to the formation of 
calcareous concretions : Miescher's sacs, trichinae, cysticerci and 
echinococci.* 



*The opinion of Duncker, that caleifications may occur also in hyaline 
muscle degeneration, which Duncker formerly considered as an actinomycotic 
disease, has not been confirmed. Among the large number of cases of calcareous 
concretions in hogs which I bad occasion to inspect during a long period of years, 
no case was found which could have been attributed to the presence of degen- 
erated muscle foci. 



540 INVASION DISEASES 

Differential Diagnosis. — The differentiation of calcareous 
concretions in the musculature of hogs is of great practical value, 
since the sanitary police judgment of it is not a simple matter. For 
example, calcined trichinae are to be judged quite differently from 
calcified Miescher's sacs. The latter at most merely render of 
inferior quality the meat infested by them, while calcified trichinae 
always make the meat dangerous. For it is an established fact that 
even apparently wholly calcified trichinae may still be capable of 
producing an invasion (page 462). Trichinae are not to be considered 
as disintegrated and dead until the whole worm body is affected 
with calcification and dissolves completely when treated with acetic 
acid. But, even in case of the presence of totally calcified trichinae, 
it should be remembered that iutact trichinae may be present in one 
and the same animal with specimens which have disintegrated. 

So long as the calcification of the structures in question is not 
complete, it is not ordinarily difficult to make a correct diagnosis 
from the organic remains which are preserved. Occasionally it is 
possible, even in cases of complete calcification, to restore the 
original conditions by treatment with weak acids (acetic acid or 
dilute hydrochloric acid), and thus to recognize with certainty the 
organic substratum of the calcification, as, for example, in normally 
calcified trichinae. In other cases, such a possibility is excluded, 
since calcification may entirely destroy the structure of the 
organisms. In such cases, after treatment with weak or diluted 
strong acids, at most there remain mere fragments of tissue, which 
do not permit a definite conclusion as to the nature of the cal- 
cification. 

For these doubtful cases the following characters may serve as 
criteria for recognizing calcareous deposits of different origins : 



(a) Calcified Miescher's Sacs. 

The varying size is the most conspicuous feature in. calcified 
Miescher's sacs, which furnish the chief contingent of calcareous 
concretions in the musculature of hogs. In Miescher's sacs, calcifi- 
cation is by no means associated with a certain developmental stage, 
but may appear in sacs of small size. Calcification begins in 
Miescher's sacs in the form of an irregular granular deposit which 
appears at first centrally and thence spreads gradually toward the 
periphery. One also observes, however, S-shaped and spirally- 
coiled lime deposits in Miescher's sacs. 



CALCAREOUS CONCRETIONS 



541 



In cases of incomplete calcification of Miescher's sacs, one may 
still demonstrate the characteristic reniform and crescent-shaped 
corpuscles in the peripheral chambers (page 527). In cases of total 
calcification in Miescher's sacs, it is to be noted that they lie in the 
muscle fibers, possess an elongated form and are surrounded with 
a connective tissue membrane. This membrane, in contrast with 
the trichina capsule, dissolves upon the addition of potash lye 
(Duncker). Furthermore, the striation of the muscle fibers at the 
boundary of the sacs is unaffected, as contrasted with the condition 
in trichinae (Fig. 175). 

Calcified Miescher's sacs are, as a rule, visible to the naked eye, 
but some of them are demonstrable only by microscopic examination. 
They may occur in the heart as well as in the skeletal musculature. 



Fig. 183. 




Fig. 184. 




Human muscle fibers with 
strongly calcified trich- 
ina?. Natural size. 



Calcified Miescher's sacs from the musculature 
of a hog. The white points are the calcifica- 
tions. Natural size. 



(b) Calcified Trichinae. 

The intact trichina capsule possesses a length of 0.4 to .5 mm. 
As a rule, therefore, even when calcified, trichinae are not readily 
visible to the naked eye, if calcification is restricted merely to the 
mass of the capsule. There are cases, however, in which calcifica- 
tion extends beyond the poles of the trichina capsule, so that the 
whole calcified structure attains a length of 1 mm. and becomes 
visible to the naked eye. These cases, however, are extremely rare 
in hogs, as contrasted with man, in whom muscle trichinae frequently 
become macroscopically visible as a result of calcification (Fig. 184). 



542 



INVASION DISEASES 



The rare occurrence of extensive calcification of the muscle trichinae 
of hogs is readily understood if we consider that the deposition of 
lime in the capsule of muscle trichinae usually does not begin until 
several months after the invasion. Most hogs, however, are slaugh- 
tered at from seven to ten months of age. 

The calcification of muscle trichinae in hogs may, as shown on 
pages 461 to 465, proceed in a normal and pathological manner. 

In normal calcification, the glandular cloudiness extends from 
the poles of the trichina capsule over the whole capsule, in such a 
manner that the coiled worm finally becomes invisible. The latter, 

Fig. 185. 






Totally calcified triehinas from one and the same hog. Neither the capsules nor the 
parasites could be made visible by the use of acetic acid. But at a the capsule is 
differentiated in spite of calcification and the outlines of the trichina can be seen. 
At b also the trichina can be seen. Fat tissue has developed at the poles of the 
calcifications. The calcareous concretion c is smaller than a and b although from 
the same hog, and shows no differentiation or fat tissue. It broke under pressure 
of the cover glass. Calcification probably began before development was complete. 



however, may still be completely intact and viable. In such cases 
the trichina capsule, as well as the parasite, may be rendered visi- 
ble by the addition of acetic or weak hydrochloric acid. On tk 
other hand, the capsule and the worm inclosed in it may finally 
become totally calcified, so that no positive finding can be made 
after treatment with acids (Fig. 185). 

In cases of pathological calcification, no characteristic capsule 



CALCAREOUS CONCRETIONS 



543 



is formed on account of the extensive connective tissue prolifera- 
tion in the region in the invading parasites. There is at most 
merely a hint at a capsule, and the trichinae die prematurely. In 
these cases, calcification begins with the parasites and is usually 
so complete that there is nothing left by which to recognize them 
after the addition of acids (Fig. 186). 

In both cases of total calcification of trichinae, in which after 
treatment with lime-dissolving acids the presence of trichinae can 
not be demonstrated, sufficient criteria for recognition are found in 
the elongated spindle-form (Figs. 185, 186), in the size, which does 
not exceed \ to 1 mm., in the seat of lime deposits in muscle 

Fig. 186. 




Encapsuled calcareous concretions from dead trichinae. Pathological 
calcification of trichina?. (Leuckart.) 



fibers, and in the alteration of the latter (disappearance of the con- 
tractile substance and the development of fat tissue at the poles of 
the lime deposits). 

Calcified trichinae are found in the skeletal musculature and 
not in the heart. 

(c) Calcified Cysticerci. 



The cysticerci which occur in the musculature of the hog may 
die in any developmental stage and may calcify after undergoing 
caseation. The size of calcified cysticerci varies, according to the 
stage of development in which the parasites die, between that of a 
millet seed and that of an oat kernel. The smallest calcified cysti- 



r>u 



INVASION DISEASES 



cerci, however, are larger than the previously-described structures. 
Moreover, calcified cysticerci do not lie in the muscle fibers, but 
between them, and are characterized by a macroscopically-visible 
connective tissue membrane (Fig. 187). Moreover, the calcified 
content is usually separable from the membrane. Furthermore, 
in the calcified cysticerci of larger size, the characteristic hooks 
may be demonstrated under certain conditions and more frequently 
the calcareous corpuscles of the cysticercal neck are to be seen 

Pig. 187. 



- ; v > T •-; 



S\ 




Cysticerci calcified while young, with strongly developed connective tissue 
capsules. X 35 diameters. 

(Fig. 125). Calcified cysticerci are found not only in the skeletal 
musculature, but also in the heart, since this forms a favorite loca- 
tion for cysticerci. 

(d) Calcified Echinococci. 



Calcified echinococci, as well as echinococci in general, are 
rarely found in the voluntary musculature. As a rule, they are 
observed in the musculature only in case of very extensive inva- 
sion in which the viscera are sprinkled with the parasites. This 
fact points the way to the recognition of calcified echinococci in 
the skeletal musculature. With regard, however, to the objective 
characters of calcified echinococci, it may be stated that the latter, 
like the cysticerci, lie between the muscle fibers and are likewise 



CALCAREOUS CONCRETIONS 



545 



always larger than calcified trichinae. Moreover, in older cal- 
cified echinococci, remains of the characteristically-lamellated 
echinococcal cuticula, calcareous corpuscles and hooks are present 
(Fig. 163). 

Tyrosin Deposits in Smoked Pork. — In smoked pork, most fre- 
quently in Westphalian hams, white spots occur, which, macro- 
scopically, may be confused with calcified trichinae, but which 
under the microscope are easily recognized as granular deposits. 
In these deposits, the occurrence of which was first made known 
by Yirchow, we have a case of artificial product, due to the method 
of preservation. They are found in the form of irregular heaps- 

Fig. 189. 





Tyrosin deposits 

from a Westphalian ham. 

Natural size. 



Masses of tyrosin crystals in smoked 
pork, enlarged. (Leuckart.) 



of crystals, varying in size from one to several millimeters, which 
exceed the breadth of several muscle fibers, and are surrounded 
by a capsule (Fig. 189). According to Yoit, these deposits consist 
of tyrosin. Aside from their irregular form and their location, they 
are further distinguished from the parasitic calcification by the fact 
that they may be dissolved not only by means of acids, but also by 
potash lye. The process of dissolution in hydrochloric acid takes 
place without the development of carbon dioxide and in sulphuric 
acid without the formation of crystals of gypsum. If nitric acid 
is added to tyrosin deposits, a yellow solution is obtained, which, 
by the addition of potash lye, together with the application of heat, 
becomes red. 



546 INVASION DISEASES 

(According to Kitt, one may artificially produce the excretion 
of tyrosin crystals by laying meat in old alcohol which has already 
been used for preserving purposes). 

Triple Phosphate Crystals in Decomposing Meat. — In decompos- 
ing meat, triple phosphate crystals are observed, which, as is well 
known, are distinguished by their coffin-lid form. These facts 
serve as sufficient criteria and aids in differentiating crystalline 
deposits which are formed post-mortem in the musculature from 
calcifications which arise during life on the basis of pathological 
processes. 



ih 



XII. 
PLANT PARASITES (INFECTIOUS DISEASES). 



General Account. — -In recent times, no field of pathology has 
experienced such scientific advancement as that of infectious dis- 
eases. If, according to Brieger's plan, all known diseases are 
divided into four groups, (1) diseases of traumatic origin, (2) infec- 
tious diseases, (3) metabolic diseases, and (4) neuroses, we have 
first to emphasize the unexpected development which infectious 
diseases have made at the expense of the other groups. It is only 
necessary to mention the discovery of the vegetable parasitic nature 
of certain infectious diseases of wounds, especially tetanus, which 
was previously considered as a neurosis, the etiological investiga- 
tions of certain diseases of the intestines, inflammations of the lungs, 
etc., diseases the origin of which was formerly not explainable, or ; 
was merely attributed to a "cold." In addition to the extension 
of this field, attention should be called to the fact that the whole 
doctrine of infectious diseases was without a scientific basis until 
our time. Compare, for example, treatises on the infectious dis- 
eases of earlier times, say from the 60's of the preceding century, 
with those which we have to-day on the same subject. We may 
thus realize properly the great progress which the most recent of 
medical sciences, bacteriology, has shown in the field of infectious 
diseases. 

It is frequently asserted that bacteriology has never fulfilled 
the expectations which have been entertained regarding its develop- 
ment, from the standpoint of practical medicine. As far as cura- 
tive medicine is concerned, this must be granted. In prophylactic 
medicine, however, bacteriology, during the short period of time 
since its origin, has made the greatest progress, or has entered upon 
lines of progress. The doctrine of infectious diseases first became 
a well grounded science in consequence of the development of bac- 
teriology under the school of Robert Koch, In this science the 
earlier problems and philosophical speculations have been replaced 
by positive didactic principles. 

547 



548 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

No less fruitful has been the effect of the progress of bac- 
teriology upon meat inspection. The greatest number and at the 
same time the most important diseases of food animals belong to 
the infectious diseases. So far as these diseases are concerned, 
however, meat inspection is nothing more or less than applied bac- 
teriology. The field of contagious diseases was formerly the 
weakest point in meat inspection. Gross empiricism and arbitrary 
doctrinarianism prevailed to a great extent in this field. At any 
rate it was the recognition of this fact which led Haubner to 
express the opinion that " the whole science of meat inspection can 
never be based and regulated on scientific principles." It may be 
asserted without fear of contradiction that the respect which the 
science of meat inspection has earned in recent times is attribut- 
able in no small degree to the fact that with regard to infectious 
diseases it operates upon more scientific principles than formerly. 
We have made great advances in the accurate determination of 
infectious diseases and in the sanitary police procedure with the 
meat of animals affected with such diseases. 

In an address on "Antisepsis in Surgery," Johne once 
remarked that whoever had not learned to feel and think antisepti- 
cally would never become a master in surgery. The same may b& 
said for meat inspection. Whoever is unable to think bacteriologi- 
cally and to operate according to the requirements of bacteriology, 
grossly violates the elementary principles of hygiene, daily. To 
cite but one of the many examples : Persons who are unschooled 
in bacteriology neglect the disinfection of knives with which they 
have examined infectious alterations, tubercles, abscesses, etc. 
Other sound organs are incised with the same knives and are in 
this manner artificially infected. 

It requires no detailed argument to show that the mere wiping 
of knives, which is, perhaps, never neglected, is not sufficient to- 
remove infectious material.* 

For the purpose of general orientation and in order to avoid 
repetitions in the discussion of the different infectious diseases, the 
following general remarks concerning infectious diseases and patho- 



*In order to prevent the bad results of this reprehensible and dangerous 
practice, it is desirable that every inspector carry with him in the abattoirs two 
knives, one for ordinary use and the other for use in examining diseased organs. 
If a knife becomes contaminated with virulent material, disinfection may be- 
easily accomplished by passing it through a flame after a previous cleaning. 
This procedure offers the least difficulty , since flames are accessible in every room 
of an abattoir. 



GENERAL ACCOUNT " 549 

genie bacteria may be made in this connection. In. a special study 
of bacteriology, however, one should not fail to consult Baumgarten, 
" Pathologische M} T kologie "; for bacteriological technique, Kitt, 
' " Bakterienkunde und Pathologische Mikroscopie"; and for animal 
diseases, Friedberger and Fiohner, " Pathologie und Therapie," 
Vol. II. Many statements in the following chapters are taken from 
these works. 

Nature and Etiology of Infectious Diseases. — Infectious 
diseases are characterized by the fact that they are either trans- 
mitted by natural means from animal to animal and occasionally 
acquire an extensive distribution (plagues), or are artificially trans- 
missible from one animal to another (infectious diseases of woundsj, 
for the organisms of these diseases are living structures, capable of 
multiplication. 

Pathogenic organisms are small plants (micro-organisms) which 
were formerly included among schizomycetes. The schizomycetes, 
together with the schizophytous algse, constitute the large group of 
schizophytes. They are distinguished from related plants by the 
absence of chlorophyl, on account of which, like other fungi and 
animals, they must obtain their nutriment from organic materials 
ivhich they metabolize in a peculiar manner (Zopf). Since, how- 
ever, it has been shown that some chlorophyl-bearing organisms 
are found among the micro-organisms in question, the name schizo- 
mycetes has been replaced by the term bacteria. The organisms 
of infection are called pathogenic bacteria in contrast with the 
immense number of saprophytic bacteria which can not thrive in 
living tissue. Saprophytic bacteria, to which the large group of 
putrefactive organisms belongs, find suitable conditions of growth 
only when a portion of the body dies, or is notin contact with other 
living tissue ; as, for example, when the blood supply in the part in 
question is cut off. As compared with the pathogenic bacteria, the 
pathogenic molds play only a subordinate role (see page 325). 

Morphology of Pathogenic Bacteria. — The bacteria which 
are pathogenic for domesticated animals are either cocci (spherical 
bacteria) or bacilli (rods). Furthermore, distinction is made 
according to form between Leptothrices (thread bacteria), Strepto- 
thrices (branched bacteria) and Spirilla (spiral bacteria). 

The cocci are further classified into diplococci, tetrads, sarcinse, 
streptococci and staphylococci. 



550 INEECTIOUS DISEASES 

Diagnosis of Bacteria. — The morphological differences between 
bacteria constitute an important means of recognition. As a rule, 
however, the form alone is not enough for the identification of the 
species of bacteria ; it is necessary to consider their characters : 
motility, behavior toward stains, growth on artificial nutrient media, 
appearance of pure cultures, production of certain chemical sub- 
stances, and the effect of an artificial inoculation of experimental 
animals. 

Biological Chaeactebs of Pathogenic Bacteeia. — In the 
artificial cultivation of bacteria, it has been found that they have 
the power of growth and multiplication only under definite external 
conditions. 

All bacteria require for their development protein in an easily 
assimilable form, salts, moisture and a certain temperature. The 
optimum temperature for pathogenic bacteria is that of the blood. 
The most of these bacteria, moreover, grow only in material of an 
alkaline or neutral reaction. 

A certain proportion of pathogenic bacteria thrive only in the 
presence of oxygen ; for example, anthrax bacilli. These bacteria 
are called aerobic in contrast with anaerobic species which multiply 
only when oxygen is completely excluded ; as, for example, the 
tetanus bacillus. This difference is of great importance for meat 
inspection, for anaerobic bacteria are limited to local development 
in the animal body. They die in the circulating blood for the 
reason that it carries oxygen. Aerobic bacteria, on the other hand, 
can not form spores in the meat of food animals, since they do not 
find oxygen in this material (see "Anthrax "). 

In the experimental inoculation of bacteria into animals of 
different species, it appears that their infective power is by no 
means the same for all animals. Only a small proportion of 
bacteria are pathogenic for all domesticated animals and man — 
considering only these species for the present — (for example, the 
pyogenic bacteria, bacilli of anthrax, tetanus and tuberculosis). 
The majority of pathogenic bacteria, on the other hand, possess a 
power of infection merely toward a certain species of animal. This 
elective behavior of bacteria is of great significance in rendering 
judgment on the meat of animals suffering from infectious diseases. 

It is one of the most remarkable facts of pathology that the 
most serious diseases of animals are not communicable to man. 
Rinderpest, contagious pleuro-pneumonia, blackleg and swine 
erysipelas can not be transmitted to man in any form. The human 



GENERAL 551 i 

organism appears to be absolutely immune or refractory to these 
plagues. 

We seek in vain for a satisfactory explanation of this highly 
remarkable behavior of man toward the majority of the infectious 
diseases of domesticated animals. The investigator stands here 
before a complete mystery of nature, for the solution of which our 
wisdom is unavailing. We must content ourselves with a demon- 
stration of the fact that the human organism treats the majority of 
bacteria which are highly pathogenic for animals absolutely, or at 
any rate when taken by way of the mouth, as saprophytes — that is, 
as harmless plants or bacteria. I 

In a number of other extremely devastating diseases of domes- 
ticated animals there is, to be sure, no absolute immunity, but a 
more or less complete insusceptibility to infection from eating the 
meat of animals which are affected with those diseases. This fact 
indicates that we have to distinguish between bacteria which are 
transmissible to man only by inoculation into the skin or subcu- 
taneous tissue, and those which are at the same time transmissible 
by means of the alimentary tract (compare "Anthrax"). 

Chemism of Bacteria.— In spite of their microscopic size, 
bacteria develop vigorous chemical activity. They produce simple 
chemical bodies ; for example, carbonic acid, ammonia, hydrogen 
sulphid, or peculiar organic substances the chemical composition of 
which is less understood than their action. We are under obliga- 
tions to Brieger for calling attention to the chemism of bacteria and 
for having indicated the methods by which it is possible to isolate 
the poisons (toxins) produced by bacteria. The isolation of bacterial 
poisons is secured most easily by the filtration of living pure cul- 
tures or by the extraction of dead cultures. In this manner the best 
success has been had in obtaining the poisonous metabolic products 
of bacteria, and much better success has been achieved than by 
means of complicated methods of obtaining them in a pure state, 
since by the latter methods these bodies are partly destroyed. 

The chemism of bacteria is very important for meat inspection, 
since it makes us acquainted with the fact that bacteria, although 
of themselves unable to produce an infection in man, are, however, 
capable of becoming injurious to man through the toxins produced 
by them (see "Sausage Poisoning"). 

^Resistance of Bacteria and Other Toxins to Higher 
Degrees of Temperature. — Most pathogenic bacteria and a small 



552 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

percentage of the toxins formed by them are destroyed by a high 
degree of heat. The knowledge of this fact possessed for a long 
time merely a scientific value. For the poor conductive property 
of meat offered considerable difficulties in the way of any thor- 
ough heating of the meat to a high temperature. These difficulties 
are now to be considered as obviated, since Hertwig has shown that 
by means of a steam cooking apparatus even the larger pieces of 
meat may readily be heated to the temperature of 100° C. This 
discovery constitutes one of the greatest steps in advance in the 
long and warmly disputed question concerning the utilization of 
the meat of animals affected with contagious diseases. 

It is only by means of an accurate knowledge of the facts 
briefly indicated above, and which we owe to bacteriology, that we 
acquire a proper understanding of the nature and sanitary police 
judgment of infectious diseases. These facts also furnish us 
important criteria for dealing with the meat of animals affected 
with contagious diseases. 

1.— Putrid Intoxication and Traumatic Infectious Diseases. \ 

(a) Putrid Intoxication (Sapremia). 

Nature and Origin. — In bacteriology distinction is made, as 
already indicated, between saprophytic and pathogenic bacteria. 
The former, in contrast with the pathogenic organisms, thrive only 
on dead bodies or, in living organisms, only on such parts as have 
lost organic connection with the vital operations (masses of blood, 
secretions, excretions, necrotic masses). The typical saprophytic 
bacteria, or those which are "strictly obligate saprophytes," are 
the bacteria of putrefaction. These bacteria are found only on 
dead parts which are in connection with the outside world, and not 
in the blood. They may, however, produce acute symptoms of 
poisoning since they possess the power of producing poisonous sub- 
stances which may pass from the putrefactive foci, by resorption, 
into the blood. This sort of poisoning is characterized as putrid 
intoxication or sapremia. 

A possibility of the development of sapremia is presented in 
cases of complicated bone fracture, pulmonary gangrene, perfora- 
tive peritonitis and traumatic pericarditis, as well as in cases of 
placental retention. 

A clinically-pure type of sapremia is perhaps seldom observed 
in practice. As a rule, sapremia is associated with previously- 



SAPREMIA 553 

existing diseases (inflammations of the lungs, stomach and intes- 
tines, pericardium and peritoneum), or, secondarily, local and 
general phenomena of an infectious nature become associated with 
the sapremic processes, as in cases of retentio secundinarum. This 
fact should be borne in mind in rendering judgment on the meat of 
sapremic animals. 

Through the experimental investigations of Panum, Bergmann, 
Schmiedeberg, Selmi, Nencki, and especially of Brieger, with experi- 
mental animals, we have been made acquainted with the symptoms 
which appear after artificial inoculation with the soluble products 
of putrefactive bacteria. The result is an acute intoxication, 
ushered in with symptoms of paralysis and spasms. The intoxica- 
tion may rapidly prove fatal with symptoms of respiratory paraly- 
sis, and is distinguished from infection by the fact that it possesses 
no period of incubation and also by the fact that it occurs the 
more quickly and violently the larger the quantity of inoculated 
material, and, finally, by the fact that the disease can not be trans- 
mitted further by inoculation with parts of the bodies of animals 
which have died in consequence of the intoxication. 

With regard to the essential nature of the poisonous metabolic 
products of putrefactive bacteria, the prevailing view until recent 
years was that they were crystalline bodies. Brieger's clever and 
indefatigable work made it possible for him to isolate, according to 
his own method, a large number of well marked crystalline putre- 
factive products, which, in accord with Selmi, he characterized as 
ptomains. To this group belong muscarin, cholin, cadavarin, 
putrescin, neurin, neuridin, saprin, etc. Some of the ptomains dis- 
covered by Brieger are poisonous ; others, on the other hand, are 
non-poisonous. At present the doctrine of ptomains is declared 
to be "an interesting error." Brieger and his assistant, Bock- 
lisch, had already called attention to the fact that in the process 
of obtaining crystalline bodies from decomposing substances, the 
toxicity of the crystalline substance thus obtained was consider- 
ably less than that of the original extract, and in the report of his 
experiments in preparing ptomains from decomposing fish, Bock- 
lisch states " the most poisonous properties are possessed by the 
extraction fluid freshly obtained from putrefactive broth. During 
the process of obtaining the bases, the toxicity of the extract is more 
and more diminished until it sometimes disappears entirely." It is 
now considered as demonstrated that not only with putrefactive 
organisms, but also with pathogenic bacteria, it is not so much the 
crystalline as the amorphous metabolic products which represent 



554 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

the active poisonous bodies. According to Brieger, the poisonous 
metabolic products of bacteria, in contrast with the ptomains, are 
characterized as toxins. 

Findings in slaughtered animals affected with sapremia : the 
presence of a decomposing area, which may be detected by its 
bad odor ; other alterations, particularly of the parenchyma, may 
be entirely absent. 

Judgment. — No investigations have been made concerning the 
poisonous or non-poisonous character of the meat of sapremic ani- 
mals. However, from the investigations of Panum, Bergmann, 
et al., we know that fatal intoxication may be produced in experi- 
mental animals by subcutaneous, intraperitoneal, or intravenous 
inoculation of the soluble metabolic products of putrefactive bac- 
teria. Furthermore, we know from the history of cases of sausage 
poisoning that decomposing substances may also be highly 
poisonous when taken per os. It should also be noted, as already 
demonstrated by Panum, and as is frequently shown anew by spon- 
taneous poisoning from decomposing substances, that the poison- 
ous bodies are not destroyed by boiling. Decomposing materials 
must, therefore, be characterized as injurious to health. 

This, however, is not necessarily true of the meat of animals 
which are affected with putrid intoxication ; for the living cell has 
the power of destroying the substances which accumulate in decom- 
posing dead meat. We may best study this point in cattle, in the 
frequent cases of sapremia without fever as a consequence of 
retentio secundinarum. Animals which are seriously affected recover 
rapidly if the decomposing material is removed from the uterus by 
repeated irrigation with water. Such a matter could not be thought 
of in cases of infectious metritis or localization of pathogenic 
organisms in the uterine tissues. In sapremia, on the other hand, 
we may explain this result without reserve, according to analogous 
processes, especially the behavior of the organism in poisoning by 
alkaloids (see Chapter X), by the fact that the toxins circulating in 
the blood are broken up by the vital power of the living cell into 
harmless bodies, so. that the organism may recover, while further 
resorption of these substances is prevented. 

Brieger calls attention to the fact that in the normal body the 
larger portion of the alimentary canal is a focus of putrefaction in 
which the poisonous products of bacterial life are formed. A por- 
tion of these products (indol, phenol, cresol, scatol, derivatives of 
the aromatic series) unite to form harmless double associations by 



SAPREMIA 555 

combination with sulphuric acid, or, if this is not sufficient, with 
glycuronic acid (a derivative of sugar in the circulating blood). 

The meat of animals which were affected merely with putrid 
intoxication and not at the same time with sapremia, according to 
this theoretical consideration, can not be considered injurious to 
health, as is the case with meat which undergoes decomposition 
post mortem. This assumption receives substantial support from 
the experimentally demonstrated fact that the blood of animals 
dead of putrid intoxication does not show a toxic action in inocula- 
tion experiments, and also by the fact, well known to all practicing 
veterinarians, that, annually, large quantities of meat of .animals 
which are affected with stinking processes are eaten without harm. 
Thus, the meat of nearly all cattle affected with traumatic peri- 
carditis is eaten without a single case of disease having been 
observed as a result. Moreover, in the literature of meat poisoning, 
no case of pericarditis is mentioned as a cause of disease. 

The same may be said of meat from the frequent cases of per- 
forative peritonitis in cattle. The author has observed a large num- 
ber of cases of traumatic peritonitis with a malodorous exudatic n,. 
in which the meat was eaten without any ill consequences. 

In the literature of the subject one case of meat poisoning is 
mentioned which was apparently due to perforative peritonitis. 
This is the case of meat poisoning in Garmisch (Bollinger). In 
Garmisch, however, it was merely the consumption of the diseased, 
organs which caused the acute symptoms of intoxication, while the 
meat proper or musculature was only slightly or not at all 
poisonous. 

Only inflammations of the uterus with stinking exudation must 
be considered as very dangerous with regard to the consumption of 
the meat (see "Septicemia "). 

In traumatic pericarditis of cattle, it is a striking fact that fever 
is almost uniformly absent during life and that after emergency 
slaughter the parenchyma of the liver, heart and kidneys, as well as 
the skeletal musculature, shows a perfectly normal structure, rather 
than cloudy swelling and fatty metamorphosis, as observed in septic 
diseases. In cases of traumatic pericarditis, the animals die, in the 
vast majority of cases, not with symptoms of intoxication, but from 
mechanical obstruction of the cardiac action by means of foreign 
bodies which have penetrated the heart, or by the exudate caused 
by these bodies. 

Traumatic pericarditis, in so far as the judgment of the meat is 
concerned, must be assigned a special position among the inflam- 



5o6 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

anatory diseases which are ushered in with decomposition of the 
exudate. I take side with the long customary practice, from the 
standpoint 6f practical veterinarians, of assigning the meat of such 
animals to the freibank as an inferior food material. It may, how- 
ever, occur that tho edematous infiltration of the musculature, in con- 
sequence of the obstruction to the circulation, or ichorous infarcts 
in the lungs, spleen and kidneys, in consequence of the perforation 
of the muscle of the heart by foreign bodies, may make necessary 
the absolute exclusion of the meat from market. 

In all other processes, however, in which there is not such 
a typical course of the disease or such an abundance of experi- 
mental material as in the case of traumatic pericarditis, the meat 
must be regarded as calculated to injure human health. This 
judgment is indicated especially in putrefactive processes in the 
uterus on account of its frequent complication with septic metritis. 
It should also be noted that persons who have eaten the meat of 
animals affected with perforative peritonitis or retentio secundinarum 
uniformly assert that the meat and meat broth possesses a pro- 
nounced odor of decomposition. For this reason alone the meat in 
the diseases in question (perforative peritonitis and retentio secundi- 
narum) should be absolutely excluded from market as highly unfit 
for food. 



(b) Pyemia (Generalization of Purulent Processes). 

Nature. — This disease has been defined as a blood poisoning 
Avith the appearance of metastases. In order rightly to understand 
the nature of pyemia, it is necessary to consider briefly the condi- 
tions of local suppuration. 

Suppurations belong to the more frequent pathological pro- 
cesses. They appear upon the mucous membranes as purulent 
catarrh ; upon the serous membranes as purulent discharges ; and 
in the tissues of various organs as purulent inflammations or 
abscesses. These processes may — and this is usually the case — run 
a local course, or, exceptionally, they may become general. In the 
latter case, we speak of pyemia. 

Pyemia occurs in various forms. The essential point, however, 
is that purulent processes may be set up far from the orginal focus 
of suppuration, through the agency of the circulation, either in the 
form of metastatic abscesses or of an inflammation of the bone 
marrow, osteomyelitis. Abscesses which simply arise in the course 



PYEMIA 557 

of the lymphatic vessels, as, for example, the formation of an, 
abscess in the corresponding lymph gland in contagious coryza, do 
not fall under the head of pyemia. 

Etiology. — Long before an accurate bacteriological investiga- 
tion of suppurative processes had been made, Huter stated the 
maxim, " no suppuration without living micro-organisms." While 
this, perhaps, can not be accepted without reserve, and while it must 
be admitted that there are pure chemical suppurations or those 
produced by chemical irritants, it is, nevertheless, certain that the 
great majority of suppurative processes, at least of those which, 
possess interest for us on account of the possibility of their gener- 
alization, are of bacterial origin. 

Fig. 190. Tig. 191. 






Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus Streptococcus pyogenes in microscopic 

from a pure culture on agar-agar. pure culture in pus from a horse. 

X 500 diameters. X 500 diameters. 

In the etiology of suppurations, two bacterial organisms are 
chiefly concerned, Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus and Streptococcus 
pyogenes. There are bacilli, however, which possess the power of 
producing suppuration. 

Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, first described and named by 
Ogston, possesses the power of transforming protein into pep- 
tones and thus of liquefying solid tissues. Furthermore, S. pyogenes 
aureus, like pathogenic staphylococci in general, forms, two sorts of 
blood poisons which are to be considered as toxins in the narrower 
sense and, together with the poisons of the bodies of the cocci, 
exercises an influence upon the symptoms of staphylomycosis 
(Neisser and Wechsberg). According to investigations on man, 
S. pyogenes aureus is found chiefly in local suppurations, hot 
abscesses, phlegmons, suppurations of the lymphatic glands, trau- 
matic suppuration of the articular and synovial membranes, sup- 
puratior of the parotid gland, idiopathic cerebrospinal meningitis 



558 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

and other diseases. Moreover, it is usually demonstrable in acute 
osteomyelitis as well as in bacterial endocarditis of man. Finally, 
,S. pyogenes aureus occurs in typical secondary metastatic abscesses. 
In pyemic metastases it is, according to Banmgarten, less frequent 
than Streptococcus pyogenes. 

In the blood, Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus is found only excep- 
tionally during traumatic fever and even then quite sparingly. 
An extensive multiplication of this organism within the circulating 
"blood never occurs (Baumgarten). In the etiology of bacterial 
endocarditis, several conditions (pre-existing lesions of the intro- 
duction of staphylococcus in large masses of pus) appear to play 

Fig. 192. 




Streptococcus pyogenes in pus, stained by the Gram method. 

an important part. Incidentally it may be mentioned that bac- 
terial endocarditis, especially the ulcerating form, in consequence 
of the dissemination of infectious valvular deposits, may easily 
give rise to typical pyemia. 

According to the investigations of Rosenbach and others, 
.Streptococcus pyogenes, in contrast with Staphylococcus pyogenes 
aureus, is found in suppurations "which are distinguished by a 
tendency to superficial growth, and a slow, persistent, progressive 
and relatively slight tendency to the destruction of the affected 
tissue." This peculiarity is explained by the fact that Strepto- 
coccus pyogenes possesses a weaker peptonizing power than the 
staphylococcus. This fact explains, as Baumgarten states, the 
clinically highly important difference between the two species of 



PYEMIA 559 

"bacteria; viz., that suppurations caused by streptococcus lead 
to a general infection and to the formation of purulent metas- 
tases much more frequently than do the diseases caused by staphy- 
lococcus. 

The demonstration of suppurative staphylococcus is simple. 
They may be beautifully demonstrated by the ordinary staining 
methods and by Gram's method (Fig. 192). Besides Staphylococcus 
pyogenes aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus albus and 
S. citreus, which, on account of their great similarity to S. pyogenes 
aureus, are characterized as varieties of the latter, are found in 
purulent foci. These two cocci are usually found associated with 
S. pyogenes aureus. They are, moreover, of rare occurrence and it 
is also doubtful whether they possess pyogenic properties. 

The streptococcus of erysipelas (Fehleisen) is identical with 
Streptococcus pyogenes. 

Bacillus pyogenes fcetidus, which has been isolated from abscesses 
with odoriferous contents, produces a stinking suppuration. 

The above described micro-organisms are found most fre- 
quently in suppurative foci in man. In pus in domesticated ani- 
mals, however, in a majority of cases, staphylococcus and strepto- 
coccus, as well as pyogenic bacilli, may be demonstrated. An 
accurate determination of the relative frequency of these bacterial 
organisms in the abscesses of domesticated animals would be a 
profitable field of simple bacteriological investigation. Lucet made 
a careful investigation of 52 cases in cattle, 32 of which were acute 
abscesses in different parts of the body, 9 cases of traumatic sup- 
puration, 7 cases of puerperal pyemia and 4 other cases of pyemia. 
In these investigations Lucet found streptococci alone 9 times, 
staphylococcus alone twice, Bacillus pyogenes bovis alone 6 times, 
B. liquefaciens pyogenes bovis alone 4 times and B. crassus pyogenes 
bovis alone once. 

In the other case3 the different bacterial organisms were 
massed together or were associated with other bacteria. Lucet is 
of the opinion that the pyogenic cocci of cattle are different from 
those of man and are to be considered as distinct species {Strepto- 
coccus and Staphylococcus pyogenes bovis). Whether or not this 
assumption is well founded is still doubtful. Bacillus pyogenes 
bovis appears to be identical with B. bovis renalis (see page 307). 
B. liquefaciens pyogenes bovis is non-motile, liquefies gelatin, and 
intravenous inoculations of rabbits produce abscesses under the 
aponeuroses. B. crassus bovis is motile, grows readily, does not 
liquefy gelatin and forms drawn out threads in bouillon. It kills. 



560 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

guinea-pigs, when given in intraperitoneal injections, in from 36 to 
48 Lours. 

De JoDg isolated from metastatic abscesses in cattle a staphy- 
lococcus which resembled in many, but not all its properties, the 
Staphylococcus bovis of Lucet. The staphylococcus of De Jong does 
not liquefy gelatin and is thereby distinguished from S. pyogenes 
aureus and albus. On slant gelatin cultures, the staphylococcus 
forms either yellowish round colonies or a yellow surface growth 
which may occasionally assume a golden color. On agar and 
glycerin-agar growth is very luxuriant. It is possible to make the 
staphylococcus develop a white or yellowish color at will, according 
as the culture is kept at 37° C. or at the ordinary living tempera- 
ture. The latter temperature produces a yellow color. The size 
varies between 0.6 and 1 p-. De Jong's staphylococcus proved to 
be non-pathogenic for dogs, rabbits and guinea-pigs in subcutane- 
ous, intravenous and intraperitoneal injections. "When injected' 
into the anterior eye chamber of rabbits, however, it produces a 
purulent iritis, and, in dogs, when injected in the same manner, it 
produces ophthalmitis or purulent iritis and keratitis. 

In infectious pleuro-peritonitis of hogs, which is ushered in 
with multiple abscess formation and adhesion of the parietal and 
visceral layers, Grips demonstrated extremely minute bacteria. In 
form, they possess a certain resemblance to the organisms of swine 
plague, but take the stain intoto. They liquefy blood serum and 
when injected into the body cavity of rabbits produce a purulent 
peritonitis. 

Generalization of purulent processes by the formation of meta- 
stases is possible in two ways : 

1. By dissemination of the pyogenic organisms through the 
lymphatic glands by means of the lymphatic vessels into the blood 
circulation. 

2. By infectious emboli which become separated from the local 
thrombi in the region of the primary focus of suppuration. 

Metastases appear first in the lungs (with the exception of 
pyemia in consequence of umbilical thrombo-phlebitis, see page 
564). Individual bacterial organisms, however, or small emboli 
may pass through and beyond the lungs, since the pulmonary 
capillaries are large as compared with the capillaries of the 
systemic circulation. Moreover, the origin of extensive metastatic 
foci, in organs of the systemic blood circulatfon, is connected 
with the formation of infectious thrombi in the pulmonary venous 
system. 



PYEMIA 561 

Slaughtek Findings. — The anatomical characteristics of pyemia 
are, as already mentioned, of two kinds : 

1. Local suppuration and the presence of osteomyelitis (chiefly 
pyemia due to staphylococci). 

2. Local suppuration and the presence of multiple puriform 
and purulent foci in other organs (chiefly pyemia due to strep- 
tococci). 

In food animals, the first form may occur after suppurations 
with obstructed discharge of pus (for example, in the horny part of 
the hoof and claws, joints, etc.). The second form appears most 
frequently in connection with suppurative processes in the umbilical 
vein (purulent umbilical thrombo-phlebitis), in the lungs, and after 
suppurative inflammations of the uterus. Furthermore, in cases of 
extensive phlegmonous processes, metastatic abscesses may be 
formed under the general integument and under the cutis of the 
hoof as well as in purulent inflammation of the joints and sheaths of 
the tendons. 

Judgment of Pyemia from a Sanitary Police Standpoint. — 
"While, according to the above discussion, locally restricted abscesses 
ushered in with granulations and opening to the outside world, as 
well as purulent catarrh of the mucous membranes, viz.,fluor albus, 
must be considered as of no importance as far as the meat is con- 
cerned, and while, therefore, at most the meat may become a spoiled 
food material in consequence of emaciation due to suppuration, the 
conditions are quite otherwise in case of generalization of the pro- 
cess. The meat of pyemic animals must, as a rule, be considered 
as capable of injuring human health. As evidence of this, we have 
the experiments which were carried out by Karlinski and also cases 
of disease in man after eating the meat of pyemic animals, or the 
milk of cows which were suffering from streptococcal mastitis. 

Karlinski fed milk which contained Staphylococcus pyogenes- 
aureus to young pigs, rabbits and cats, and in forty-eight hours 
observed a general infection in six cases (staphylococci in the blood), 
purulent parotitis in five cases, acute intestinal catarrh with fatal 
results in seventeen cases, and general infection with the formation 
of miliary pus foci in the liver and kidneys in eight cases. 

Hoist observed four epidemics of moderate extent in man after 
drinking milk which came from cows affected with mastitis and 
which contained staphylococci which were not distinguishable from 
S. pyogenes. The persons in question were affected with an acute 
catarrh of the stomach and intestines and diarrhea. 



562 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

In addition to the cases of meat poisoning in Rohrsdorf and 
Friedberg (q. v.), which were, perhaps, due to eating the meat of 
pyemic animals, we have another unexceptionable observation con- 
cerning the injuriousness of the meat from cases of pyemia. In 
Corres, near Maulbronn (Wurtemburg), a large number of persons, 
according to Dambacher, became ill after eating the meat of a cow 
which was affected with osteomyelitis as a sequela of foot-and- 
mouth disease. All of the persons who bought the meat asserted 
that the marrow in the bones had become so purulent and fluid that 
it ran out of the bones upon cutting up the meat. The persons who 
ate the meat suffered from a general uncomfortable feeling, pains in 
the body and diarrhea, associated in one case with dizziness and 
faintness. 

It should also be noted that Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, 
despite the fact that it possesses no spores, is characterized by its 
great resisting powers. Thus, heating to a temperature of 99° C. 
does not kill it with certainty. At a temperature of 80° C. it is 
necessary that the heat be maintained for one hour in order to 
destroy the organism completely. Live steam, however, quickly 
renders the staphylococcus inactive. 

Exceptions to the Geneeal Judgment Concerning Pyemia. — 
The meat of pyemic animals must, as a rule, be considered as 
injurious to health. There are, however, cases of pyemia which 
form an exception to this rule, namely, chronic metastatic abscess of 
the second form. The form of pyemia which is ushered in with the 
formation of metastases in the internal organs may heal. The 
pyemia of osteomyelitis, on the other hand, does not heal. This 
always causes death if the latter is not forestalled by emergency 
slaughter. 

The healing of metastatic pus foci takes place in consequence 
of connective tissue encapsulation. The tense, anemic, cicatricial 
tissue which forms around the focus renders the latter perfectly 
harmless for the organism (elimination from the blood and 
lymphatic circulation), and the animal must be regarded as recovered 
when the primary focus has healed with or without artificial aid. 
.Such cases of healed pyemia are not- rare in food animals. Their 
differentiation from acute cases offers no difficulties. 

With the presence of fresh infectious infarcts or puriform and 
purulent metastases are connected parenchymatous cloudiness of a 
mild form, splenic tumor and petechial spots in the kidneys similar 
to those in cases of osteom3 T elitis. If, on the other hand, the 



PYEMIA 563 

purulent foci in the lungs, liver, spleen and other organs are 
encapsulated, the parenchymatous tissues appear to be absolutely 
unchanged. Moreover, the nutritive condition in cases where the 
metastatic foci are encapsulated is not in the least disturbed, while 
in acute pyemia it is always affected in a pronounced manner. 
It is not a rare occurrence that in well-fattened older calves, 
as well as in fat steers, the liver is permeated with numerous 
abscesses which owe their origin to a suppurative inflammation 
of the umbilical veins or to an old case of inflammation of the 
intestines. 

In cases where the metastases of the second form of pyemia are 
healed, the meat is therefore to be considered as harmless in con- 
trast with osteomyelitis, in which a similar process of healing is not 
observed. 

Special Forms of Pyemia and Their Anatomical Characters. 

1. Bacterial endocarditis appears either in the form of ulcers or 
granulations and tubercles on the valves. Only the first form 
possesses sanitary police significance, on account of the possibility 
of the formation of metastases. Bacterial endocarditis is regarded 
as an independent form of pyemia, for the reason that the point of 
entrance of the suppurative bacteria as a rule can not be demon- 
strated (cryptogenetic pyemia). 

Ulcerous endocarditis with the formation of metastases is not 
very frequent in food animals. As an evidence of the existence of 
this disease, we have the presence in food animals of abscesses 
which occur most frequently in the lungs and spleen. 

2. Osteomyelitis may also be cryptogenetic. As a rule, how- 
ever, it is connected with easily-demonstrable suppurations in the 
hoof, claws, joints, etc., when, in consequence of obstruction to the 
escape of the pus, chronic abscesses are formed, or, when other 
favorable conditions are present, for the resorption of the suppura- 
tive bacteria. 

Diagnosis. — The bone marrow is at first reddened and some- 
times permeated with hemorrhages (hemorrhagic osteomyelitis). 
In cases of long standing, the reddened color, which in the acute 
stage may show through the thinner bones (as in the lower jaw), is 
diminished, while the marrow assumes a purulent fluid character, 
to such an extent that it flows out of the artificially opened marrow 
cavities. Furthermore, the periosteum, especially in the regions 



564 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



of the articulations, and the articular surface in the capsules show 
ulcerative alterations. 

3. The Pyemic Form of So-called Lameness of New-bom Ani- 
mals. — As a result of purulent infection of the umbilical vein, which 
is a frequent occurrence in calves, suppurative bacteria, or particles- 

Fig. 193. 




— 



Beef heart with valvular ulcerous endocarditis, a, cut surface of the thrombus on 
the ulcerous cardiac valve; 6, base of the thrombus after artificial separation 
from the substratum; c, ulcerous part of the cardiac valve. 



of abscess material, contaminated with the purulent bacteria, may 
be carried to the liver and, after passing through the capillary sys- 
tem of the liver, may reach the lungs and from this point may 
reach all other organs by means of the systemic circulation. 
Apparently the further development of the process depends upon 
whether the suppurative bacteria are isolated or obtain entrance 



PYEMIA 565 

into the circulation in connection with particles of pus. Especially 
in general infections which occur immediately after birth and 
without macroscopically conspicuous alterations cf the stump of 
the umbilical cord, one observes purulent processes in the joints 
and in the surrounding tissue (pyemic polyarthritis), with extension 
into the liver and lungs. The disease becomes noticeable by the 
appearance of fluctuating tumors oh the joints. Most frequently 
the carpal and tarsal joint, less often the elbow and knee joints, 
and, finally, the hip joint, may become affected. 

These are the usual clinical symptoms of so-called lameness of 
calves. In abattoirs, however, one frequently meets with other 
alterations which in their ensemble must be likewise characterized 
as a pyemic form of calf lameness. Reference is here had to 
single or numerous "abscesses in the liver, occasionally also in the 
lungs, together with a primary purulent focus in the navel. 
These metastases, as already stated, usually do not become apparent 
clinically, but are quite unexpectedly found in well-nourished calves 
and older cattle after slaughter. 

The last-named metastasis possesses a decided tendency to 
connective tissue encapsulation, while this process takes place 
less frequently and at a later stage in purulent processes in the 
joints and surrounding tissue. If the arthritic and periarthritic 
abscesses are actually isolated in the above-mentioned manner, we 
find at the same time that the intestines are perfectly intact (never 
cloudiness or petechise) and the nutritive' condition good. In such 
cases it is sufficient to remove the diseased joints and surround- 
ing tissue, in the same manner as in cases of encapsuled metastases 
in the liver and lungs. The removal of these organs suffices for 
the purpose of removing the harmful parts of the meat. If, in 
spite- of the encapsulation, a disturbance of the nutritive condition 
exists, the meat is to be regarded as spoiled. 

In acute, non-encapsuled abscesses, on the other hand, the 
meat is to be put in the same class with organs affected with puru- 
lent processes.. 

With regard to the etiology of lameness in new-born animals, 
Gmelin, in the case of an affected calf, found bacteria which, 
according to their morphological and biological characters, were to 
be classified with the group of hemorrhagic septicemia. The bac- 
teria isolated by Gmelin had the power of producing symptoms of 
lameness in experimental calves. Zschokke, from the diseased 
joints of calves suffering with lameness, made cultures of Bac- 
terium coll, which, after intravenous injection, produced a mild case 



566 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

» 

of polyarthritis in a calf. Casper and the author found pathogenic 

streptococci in colts, and Sohnle, pathogenic staphylococci as the 

cause of lameness. 

4. Pyemia After Swine Plague. — In swine plague, it sometimes 
occurs that, in cases which do not run a fatal course, some or all 
of the diseased parts of the lungs, instead of healing, fuse together 
in consequence of the secondary localization of purulent bacteria. 
Pyemia may arise from these foci. If such is the case, one may 
observe abscesses in the liver, spleen, and, most numerously, in the^ 
skeletal musculature, which condition is rare in other forms of 
pyemia. 

These pyemic hogs are, almost without exception, poorly 
nourished and, in part, exhibit the symptoms of hydremic cachexia. 
Since there can be no possibility of removing muscle abscesses,, 
even in case of complete encapsulation, the meat of the animals in 
question must always be considered as injurious to health and unfit 
for food. 

Cases of pyemia, as a result of swine plague, are not frequent. 
As a rule, the purulent lung areas are encapsuled in a sac-like form. 

Similarly as in swine plague, pyemia may develop in infectious 
pneumonia of calves, sheep and goats. 

In conclusion, it should be noted that in cattle a process of 
healing by multiple encapsulation occurs with comparative fre- 
quency, even in cases of extensive suppurations in the abdominal 
cavity. Thus, in cattle one frequently meets with hypophrenic 
abscesses which occupy a position between the diaphragm and the 
kidneys. In spite of their enormous volume these abscesses 
in the encapsulated condition do not badly affect the general health 
and nutritive condition of the animals. In removing these 
abscesses, the greatest precaution should be taken in order to pre- 
vent the pus from flowing over the meat in consequence of cutting 
the wall of the abscess. If such an accident happens, it is not 
sufficient that the meat be washed. The parts which are con- 
taminated with pus must be carefully cut away with a knife and, in 
so far as the peritoneum and pleura are contaminated, these struc- 
tures must be removed. 

(c) Septicemia. 

Nature. — Septicemia is defined as a malignant general disease 
usually associated with external lesions and without localization in 



SEPTICEMIA 567 

the internal organs. This definition agrees with the clinical and 
anatomical findings. More detailed etiological investigations, how- 
ever, are required, especially in the domesticated animals, before 
we will know exactly what factors are of importance in the origin 
of septicemia. 

Etiology. — It has been demonstrated empirically that after 
accidental wounds or operative interference on such parts of the 
body as offer especially favorable conditions for resorption (the 
large body cavities, joints, sheaths of the tendons) serious disturb- 
ances of the general condition may develop, often with a rapidly 
fatal attack. Under certain conditions, the dreaded symptoms 
appear after insignificant injuries of the skin or mucous mem- 
branes. The freshly-torn navel cord of new-born animals and the 
uterus post partum are predisposed in a high degree to the develop- 
ment of sepsis. 

In ante-bacteriological times, it was considered sufficient to use 
the term " blood poisoning " as an explanation of the nature of 
sepsis. In fact, the rapid course and the pathologico-anatomical 
findings in septicemia present a striking similarity with simple 
intoxications, as, for example, with arsenic and phosphorous 
poisoning. 

The first positive knowledge concerning septicemia, applicable, 
however, at first only to experimental animals, was obtained by 
means of the classical investigations of Robert Koch concerning the 
infectious diseases of wounds. In his experiments, Koch attacked 
the problem of the extent to which decomposition processes stand 
in relation to septicemia. He injected decomposing substances 
under the skin of experimental animals and thus determined that 
the latter are quickly killed by the use of large doses without the 
multiplication of bacteria in the blood or internal organs (sapremia), 
while when smaller closes were administered, typical bacterial 
diseases appeared (septicemia). The latter may be divided into 
two groups : ' 

1. Diseases with a purely local multiplication of specific bac- 
teria at the point of inoculation. 

2. Diseases in which there is a simultaneous entrance of the 
bacteria into the blood circulation. 

In the case of the first group, we may explain the origin of 
intoxication only by assuming the resorption of poisonous metabolic 
products of the locally-multiplying bacteria. In the second group, 
on the other hand, as stated by Baumgarten, we are compelled " to 



5(')S INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

postulate the cooperation of soluble toxic substances in producing 
the symptoms of disease." The enormous mass of micro-organisms 
multiplying in the blood is held to be sufficient to produce the 
symptoms of disease and death. Typical representatives of the 
second septicemia group are found in rabbit and mouse septicemia. 
Moreover, according to the similarity of the appearance of the 
pathogenic bacteria in the blood, anthrax, cattle plague, swine 
erysipelas and fowl cholera may be assigned to this group. 

The latter forms of septicemia, however, have nothing in com- 
mon with septic wound infection. From the standpoint of meat 
inspection, moreover, it is desirable to distinguish carefully between 
the above-named infectious diseases and wound septicemia. For, 
with the exception of anthrax, they represent for the most part 
diseases to which only one species of animal is susceptible. Fur- 
thermore, the narrow limit's of the infective power of the organisms 
of septicemia, which were studied by Koch, are apparent from the 
fact that the organisms of the septicemia of house mice are perfectly 
harmless for field mice. 

The investigations of the forms of septicemia of experimental 
animals can not, therefore, remove the uncertainty which exists 
concerning the origin of traumatic sepsis in man and domesticated 
animals. In the case of man it is assumed that in addition to. 
pathogenic bacteria, the resorption of the toxic products of putre- 
factive bacteria which have become located upon the necrotic foci of 
the primary infection determine the clinical and anatomical symp- 
toms of wound sepsis (Baumgarten). It has been demonstrated by 
numerous experiments on man and domesticated animals that 
pathogenic bacteria, especially the pyogenic streptococci, are present 
in septic wounds. The presence of these bacteria in the blood is 
also considered as demonstrated. They are found in the blood, 
however, always in small numbers. 

Hauser describes a case of formal symbiosis between strepto- 
cocci and the chief species of putrefactive bacteria, Proteus vulgaris 
in an ichorous abscess formation. It was believed that the process 
was to be explained by assuming that the streptococcus infection 
followed a necrosis of the tissue, which made it possible for Proteus 
vulgaris to multiply. In this connection, Hauser cites the well- 
known experiments of Monti, from which it is apparent that strepto- 
cocci which have already lost their virulence toward normal animals 
may again attain it if the animals are inoculated at any point 
whatever with the metabolic products of cultures of proteus. If 
these observations may be generally applied, we would have to do 



SEPTICEMIA 569 

'with a formal symbiosis between streptococci and proteus. "The 
streptococci multiply in the living tissue and make possible the 
vegetation of proteus by their necrosing action. Proteus, however. ' 
in consequence of the poison produced by it, weakens the resisting 
power of the tissue and thereby renders more easy the entrance of 
streptococci, which simultaneously undergo an intensification of 
their virulence." 

It is doubtful whether the resorption of putrefactive toxins 
plays a uniform part in the origin of sepsis iu domesticated animals. 
For, in the case of a very frequent wound sepsis, viz., the septic 
form of calf and colt lameness, stinking gangrene is not present, as 
a rule, at the point of entrance. This process may also be entirely 
absent in septic metritis of cows and in septic infection of the cas- 
tration wounds in horses. I emphasize this for the reason that it 
would be a fatal error of the expert meat inspector to assume that 
sepsis was present only when necrosis* and putrefaction of the 
necrotic parts in the primary focus were observed. 

We do not yet know with certainty what bacteria may cause 
common wound sepsis in our food animals. From the similarity of 
the course of certain wound infections in domesticated animals and 
in man and from the results of bacteriological investigations on this 
subject, we may conclude that in the forms of septicemia in the 
domesticated animals, pyogenic streptococci play the most important 
part. Further investigations are required to determine in how far 
other specific organisms of traumatic septicemia occur in the 
different domesticated ani'mals. By means of bacteriological 
investigations in connection with certain cases of meat poisoning, it 
lias been determined that bacteria which belong to the coli group 
possess the power of producing septicemia in food animals (see 
under " Bacteriology of Meat Poisoning "). 

Diagnosis. — Until the mooted questions are finally settled, we 
^are compelled to make the diagnosis of sepsis on the basis of the 
course of the disease and the pathologico-anatomical alterations. 
Under certain circumstances, it is very difficult to make a diagnosis. 
In general, however, the following phenomena should render 
diagnosis certain : 

1. Intra viiam : High fever,* pronounced disturbance of the 
general condition, great weakness and depression. 

* In cattle, in which septic diseases possess the greatest sanitary interest, 
liigh fever is observed only iu typical infectious diseases and in diseases of a 
septij character. 



570 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

2. Post mortem : No gross lesions of the internal organs ;. 
uniformly cloudy swelling of the liver, heart and kidneys ; swelling 
of all the lymphatic glands, as well as petechise under the serous 
membranes, in the mucous membranes and in the lymphatic 
glands. 

The absence of gross lesions in the internal organs, or the 
small amount of alterations, which apparently are out of proportion 
to the serious phenomena during life, must create a suspicion of 
sepsis in every case. For rendering the diagnosis certain in doubt- 
ful cases, Basenau has proposed a serviceable bacteriological 
method (see under " Meat Poisoning "). 

Judgment of Meat of Animals Affected with Sepsis. — No 
other disease possesses such importance for meat inspection as 
sepsis, tuberculosis of cattle not excepted. The latter is easily 
recognizable. The diagnosis of sepsis, on the other hand, requires 
extensive medical training. Furthermore, as regards the meat, 
septicemia is to be considered the most dangerous of all diseases 
of domesticated animals. For details on this subject, see the sec- 
tion on " Meat Poisoning." In this connection it may be simply 
noted that the meat of animals affected with sepsis is to be excluded 
from the market as dangerous material, unfit for food. 

Special Forms of Septicemia in Food Animals. 

1. Septic Form of Calf Lameness (Polyarthritis septica). — This 
disease appears even in the first days of life and is characterized 
by great weakness and depression as well as by the development of 
diffuse hot swellings around and in the joints (chiefly in the carpal 
and tarsal joints, also in the hip and knee joints). The navel is 
discolored and exhibits a flabby condition. A dirty, red secre- 
tion oozes out on pressure. There are no granulations. The 
parenchyma of the liver and kidneys as well as of the myocardium 
is colored grayish-red and of soft consistency. The tissue around 
the joints is affected with serous infiltration. The articular cap- 
sules are distended with a yellowish fluid in which a fibrinous 
coagulum is found. 

Diagnosis. — While the septic diseases of all other food animals 
render emergency slaughter necessary outside of the abattoir, septic 
calf lameness may be observed in abattoirs, especially in regions in 
which the sale of so-called fasting calves (see page 238) is not pro- 
hibited. This is possible on account of the fact that most calves 



SEPTICEMIA 571 

are transported to abattoirs in wagons, and thus diseased animals 
may be introduced without attracting attention. In another place 
I have called attention to the fact that carpal and tarsal joints 
which are opened in the butcher's ordinary method of slaughtering 
should be carefully examined in each calf. 

Judgment. — Among the diseases which have caused cases 
of meat poisoning, the so-called calf lameness plays an important 
part, and the usual form is septic polyarthritis. For, almost with- 
out exception, "yellow water in the joints" is reported as being 
found after slaughtering the calves in question. The meat of such 
animals must, therefore, be considered as, in a high degree, calcu- 
lated to injure human health. 

2. Hemorrhagic Enteritis of Calves, a septic disease of uncertain 
origin, which may rapidly run a fatal course. I had an opportunity 
to study the symptoms of the disease in calves which were used for 
obtaining lymph. The animals suddenly refuse their food, exhibit 
an elevation of body temperature up to 42° C, show depression 
and often die within 12 hours. Post mortem, a reddening of the 
whole small intestine is observed together with bloody-colored 
intestinal contents, considerable swelling and hemorrhages on the 
mucous membrane. As a rule, a cloudiness of the parenchyma is 
not observed in the peracute course of the disease. On the other 
hand, a hemorrhagic swelling of the mesenteric glands is usually 
absent, as well as petechias under the serous membranes. Fre- 
quently there is splenic tumor. It is highly probable that the dis- 
ease of sucking calves, as described by Notz, which, on account of 
the associated splenic tumor, he was inclined to ascribe to the effect 
of blows from horns, is identical with this hemorrhagic enteritis. 

Differential Diagnosis. — In a superficial examination the altera- 
tions in the intestine which occur in cases of ordinary diarrhea of 
calves may be confused with those of hemorrhagic enteritis. In the 
former, however, neither hemorrhages in the mucous membrane nor 
in the mesenteric glands and serous membranes are observed. 

Judgment. — Injuries to human health from eating the meat of 
animals which are affected with hemorrhagic enteritis are unknown. 
Until positive proof of the harmlessness of the meat of such ani- 
mals is afforded, we must suspect it, in dubio, as being injurious to 
health. 

3. Septic Metritis. — Septic metritis of cows, together with 
so-called calf lameness, furnishes the chief contingent to those dis- 



572 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

eases of domesticated animals in which the consumption of the 
meat may cause epidemics in man. Frequently, metritis develops 
in connection with the retention of the placenta. In other cases, on 
the contrary, we have to do simply with inflammatory processes 
following difficult parturition, during which injuries to the sexual 
passages have occurred. Such uterine injuries, according to all our 
information, furnish unusually favorable conditions for the localiza- 
tion of the bacteria of sepsis. 

The clinical symptoms are those which are typical of sepsis. 
At the same time we observe more or less important local 
phenomena of an inflammatory nature in the sexual passages. 
After slaughtering animals seriously affected, the well-known 
alterations of the parenchyma are found. The mucous membrane 
of the uterus exhibits diphtheritic desquamations and ulcers ; the 
iliac glands are much swollen. Moreover, symptoms of fibrinous 
or sero-fibrinous peritoneal inflammation may be present.* 

4. Septic Intestinal Diseases in Cattle. — The history of cases of 
meat poisoning has acquainted us with intestinal diseases of cattle 
of an undoubted septic nature, the symptomatology of which, how- 
ever, is still incompletely known. Five such cases of septic intesti- 
nal disease have acquired notoriety through the cases of meat 
poisoning at St. Georgen, Schonenberg, Lauterbach in Hessen, 
Frankenhausen, and through the extensive epidemic in Kalk (q. ?;.). 

5. Septic Mammanj Diseases in Cows. — The ordinary mammary 
inflammations, which are so frequently brought to the attention of 
the practical veterinarian, are of a quite harmless nature during 
the life of the animals and so far as the meat is concerned. As 
shown on page 314, this holds true for phlegmonous mastitis and 
for the typical parenchymatous inflammations of the udder, pro- 
duced by the mastitis bacteria of Kitt. These inflammations, as 
such, never give occasion to emergency slaughter, since they disturb 

* Albrecht in Munich, in connection with the report of two cases of poison- 
ing after eating the meat of cows which were affected with septic metritis, 
observes that in timely slaughter and thorough bleeding, he has never observed 
injurious consequences from eating the meat of animals suffering with this dis- 
ease. In such cases the gangrenous parts are removed and the rest of the meat 
is thereupon freely admitted to the market. Albrecht, however, recommends 
the greatest precaution in judging the meat of animals affected with septic 
metritis if they are not slaughtered until the agony of the disease has appeared, 
since the bleeding in such cases is imperfect and extensive gangrenous disturb- 
ances are present. 



SEPTICEMIA 573 

the general health of the animals only slightly. The conditions are 
quite different in the case of septic inflammation of the udder, the 
knowledge of which we owe to the history of cases of meat 
poisoning. 

Diagnosis. — Septic mammary inflammations run a quite 
different course from that of ordinary inflammations of the udder. 
They are ushered in with such a serious general disturbance and 
with such a depression that the owners of the animals slaughter 
them in order to forestall natural death. 

Nothing is known concerning the condition of the internal 
organs in the above-mentioned cases. A case of septic mastitis in 
cattle, which was observed by the author, showed, after emergency 
slaughter, all of the anatomical characters of sepsis — excessive 
cloudiness of the liver, which was yellow and soft, and of the heart 
and kidneys. Extremely numerous petechise were found under the 
serous coat of the intestine, under the pulmonary pleura, and under 
the epicardium. Before slaughter the following conditions were 
conspicuous in the affected udder : All four quarters were swollen 
to about three times their natural size and were firm and hot. No 
milk was evacuated from the teats, merely a small quantity of a 
watery secretion. The animal had not eaten for three days, but had 
exceedingly great thirst. The internal body temperature was 41.5° 
to 41.9° C. On the third day the vital powers became so reduced 
that a fatal issue was feared. 

6. Petechial Fever, blood spot disease (morbus maculosus), is 
the name of a disease of horses, the etiology of which is unexplained. 
The name, blood spot disease, is given to this affection on account 
of its most conspicuous symptom, hemorrhages, which may appear 
in all the organs. These hemorrhages, in connection with the 
regular parenchymatous alterations, characterize blood spot disease 
as a pronounced septicemia. From an etiological standpoint, it is 
important to note that petechial fever is frequently associated with 
previous attacks of an infectious disease, especially contagious 
coryza and pneumonia. 

Clinical Symptoms.--Petechia3 of the visible mucous mem- 
branes, swellings of the skin which may reach an acute stage and 
show a tendency to necrosis ; internal body temperature 39.5° 
to 40° C. 

Anatomical Findings. — Petechiae in the skin and subcutis, as 
well as in all the mucous membranes, lungs, spleen, myocardium 
and voluntary musculature ; also bloody, gelatinous discharges in 



574 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

the subcutis under the mucous membrane and in the skeletal mus- 
culature. Pronounced cloudiness of the liver and kidneys, heart 
and skeletal musculature. 

With regard to the sanitary judgment of petechial fever, atten- 
tion should be called to the fact that in Zittau (see " Meat Poison- 
ing "), a large number of families of workmen became sick after 
eating the meat of a horse, which, according to all appearances, had 
been affected with this disease. 

According to the more recent observations, a " blood spot 
disease " appears to occur also in cattle. The relation between it 
and the petechial fever of horses is not plain from the published 
reports. According to the anatomical findings, however, we must 
classify the disease in cattle with septicemia. 

The author has observed a number of cases in hogs which 
began with alterations similar to those which are observed in 
petechial fever of the horse. 

In the blood spot disease of man (purpura hemorrhagica), the 
identity of which with the blood spot disease of horses is, however, 
not demonstrated, Kolb found non-motile plump bacilli, three to 
four hours after death. " Bacillus hemorrhagicus " of Kolb is patho- 
genic for dogs, rabbits and mice, but not for guinea pigs and 
pigeons. 

(d) Malignant Edema. 

Occurrence. — We owe the first information concerning malig- 
nant edema to the inoculation experiments of Robert Koch, with 
garden soil. The disease occurs after accidental injuries and in 
connection with operations on horses. Kitt has also shown that it 
may be transmitted artificially to horses, calves, sheep, goats, hogs 
and dogs, as well as to chickens and pigeons. According to Arloing 
and Chauveau, cattle are immune to malignant edema. According 
to Kitt, however, a bacillus of edema may cause extensive local 
swellings in cattle. 

Clinical Symptoms. — Malignant edema is characterized by the 
appearance of rapidly extending crackling edemata in the subcutis, 
whereby the overlying parts of the skin show a tendency to 
gangrene. 

Bacteriology. — This disease is caused by the edema bacillus. 
This organism is somewhat more slender than the anthrax bacillus, 



MALIGNANT EDEMA 575 

possesses rounded ends and sometimes, but not always, exhibits 
motility. The bacilli are arranged in apparent threads. Spores are 
formed in the individual bacilli with a spindle-shaped or tadpole- 
shaped swelling of the latter. The edema bacilli are found as pro- 
nounced anaerobic organisms only locally in the edematous areas 
and not in the blood vessels. It is only in mice that the multipli- 
cation of the bacilli has been observed in the blood, and this for an 
unexplained reason. The edema bacilli form spores in carcasses, 
when they cool slowly or are artificially exposed to a high temper- 
ature. 

It is worthy of note that the edema bacilli are regularly found 
in the humus layer of the soil. Furthermore, they are found in the 
alimentary tract of living animals. This is of value in making a 
differential diagnosis, for the bacilli, 
in carcasses of animals which have FlG - 19 4. 

been left unopened from twelve to 
twenty-four hours, may wander into 
the neighboring organs, including 
the spleen. Gaffky has demon- 
strated this condition in guinea pigs / ( ^ l \ 
which were violently strangled and 
kept in an incubator, and Lustig in 
horses which had died of colic. 

. Edema bacilli from the subcutis of a 

For details on differential diag- rabbit dead of malignant edema. 

nosis, see under "Anthrax" and Some rods are distended with 

' spores. X 500 diameters. 

" Blackleg." 

Slaughter Findings. — The abnormal anatomical finding is 
restricted for the most part to the edema of the subcutis. The 
internal organs are intact ; splenic tumor is absent. 

Judgment. — Thus far nothing is known of any injury to human 
health from the consumption of the meat of animals which have 
been affected with malignant edema. We may, perhaps, in general, 
exclude the possibility of an injurious character of the meat when 
we consider that the bacilli of malignant edema are found in the 
intestinal contents of perfectly healthy animals as harmless sapro- 
phytes. However, the meat of animals subjected, to emergency 
slaughter on account of malignant edema is to be treated as spoiled 
or highly unfit for food, according to the objective alterations. 




576 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

(e) Tetanus. 

The unmistakable clinical symptoms of tetanus obviates the 
necessity of a special description. 

Bacteriology. — Tetanus is caused by the tetanus bacilli (Nico- 
laier-Rosenbach). They are delicate, slender rods, which, in a 
sporeless condition, possess a brush-like appearance, while in the 
spore-bearing form they have a pin shape. The tetanus bacilli are 
strictly anerobic, and thrive, therefore, only in the subcutaneous, 
submucous or in the deeper-lying tissues and *o not pass into the 
blood. They produce toxines of an unusually violent action, the 

resorption of which causes the 
Fig. 195. symptom-complex of tetanus. 

" Tetanus bacilli, outside of the 

i\ animal body, are widely distributed 

"" in the surface soil. 



'? 



/ / - ^y Occurrence. — This infectious 

\ / disease is most frequent in horses 

/ / after accidental or intentional in- 

~~ juries ; also in goats after castration 

/i ^ and in cows after the retention of 

' ^ the placenta. The occurrence of 

Tetanus bacilli, partly spore bearing, infection presupposes a lesion of 
from a pure culture. x500diam. the skin or mucous membrane, or 

at least a catarrh of the mucous 
membrane (Thalheim). In new-born lambs, tetanus is observed 
enzootically in consequence of the infection of the open navel 
wound. 

Judgment. — Before it was demonstrated that tetanus is an 
infectious disease, it was considered as a simple affection of the 
nervous system, or a neurosis. Formerly, no hesitation was felt con- 
cerning the consumption of the meat of tetanized animals ; no 
injuries to health have been observed in consequence of this. Fur- 
thermore, Gerlach states that he has fed the meat of .tetanized 
horses in large quantities to hogs without causing any results in 
the experimental animals. With a knowledge of the true nature of 
the disease, we must, nevertheless, investigate the question whether 
from a scientific standpoint the meat can be considered as injurious 



ANTHRAX 577 

to health. According to the investigations of Sormani, this ques- 
tion is to be auswered in the negative. Sormani demonstrated 
that animals could be fed for a long time with pure cultures of 
tetanus bacilli without injury to their health. The digestive tract 
endures a dose 10,000 times larger than the fatal dose in sub- 
cutaneous inoculation. Accordingly, Sormani considers the meat 
of tetanized animals as perfectly harmless. According to Fermi 
and Celli, the tetanus toxin is rendered inactive by the hydro- 
chloric acid of the gastric juice. 

It was a priori probable that tetanus bacilli were incapable 
of producing an infection from the alimentary tract, since other- 
wise tetanus must be one of the most frequent diseases of man and 
the domesticated animals, for the tetanus bacilli are frequently 
eaten along with various vegetable food materials. 

While the meat of tetanized animals can not be considered a& 
injurious to health, it nevertheless possesses the property of a 
spoiled or inferior food material ; for we find, as a rule, in tetanized 
animals defective bleeding; parenchymatous degeneration, not only 
of the heart, but also of the skeletal musculature ; an abnormal 
softness ; and, occasionally, a peculiar, faintly-sweet odor. 

Eesistance op the Tetanus Toxin to High Temperatures. — 
Kitasato demonstrated that the toxic metabolic products of the 
tetanus bacilli are totally destroyed by a temperature of 65° C, or 
more, for a few minutes (five minutes or even less). By cooking 
the meat of tetanized animals, therefore, we may free it of all 
injurious properties, since meat contains only the toxic material 
and not the organisms of tetanus. 

2. — Infectious Diseases Which May Occur in Man as Well as 
in Domesticated Animals. 

(a) Anthrax. 

General. — Anthrax is the best understood and most thoroughly 
studied infectious disease. That the entrance of anthrax bacilli 
produces anthrax is a discovery which preceded all other bacterial 
investigations and occurred, as is well known, during the middle of 
the previous century. 

Morphology and Biology of Anthrax Organisms. — Anthrax 
organisms are observed in a vegetative form (rods and threads) and 



578 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



iii the form of spores. Anthrax rods or bacilli, as was first shown 
by Liipke, consist of cells from 1.5 to 2 ju long. In a slowly- 
developing case of anthrax the cells may reach a length of 
3 yw (Johne). On artificial nutrient media, the rods develop into 
extremely long, straight or coiled threads in which spores are 
formed (Fig. 197). Spore formation occurs only in the presence 
of abundant oxygen under suitable conditions of temperature. 
The limits of temperature lie between 18° and 34° C, the optimum 
being 30° C. The spores are formed, however, neither in the living 
animal body nor in the intact animal carcass. 

Furthermore, in the diagnosis of anthrax, it is important to 
remember that the rods are non-motile and are surrounded by a 



Fig. 19b. 



Fig. 197. 




Anthrax bacilli from spleen of an 
infected mouse, showing cap- 
sules and division walls between 
individual cells. Some of the 
longer cells are constricted in 
the middle. X 800 diameters. 







Anthrax threads in process of sporulation, and 
free spores. X 2000 diameters. 



characteristic capsule or gelatinous membane, by means of which 
the individual cells are held together. 

The capsule or gelatinous membrane is of greater or less thick- 
ness and surrounds the individual anthrax cells on both sides 
and on the ends in a uniform layer. Such a conspicuous capsule 
is wanting in all bacteria which might give occasion to confusion 
with Bacillus anthracis, especially the so-called cadaver bacillus 
(Johne). The capsules of anthrax bacilli, according to Johne, may 
be demonstrated by the following process : 

1. A lege artis cover glass preparation, air-dried, is grasped 
with the pincers in the ordinary manner and passed three times 
through the flame. 



ANTHRAX 579 

2. Then, in a horizontal position, the smeared side up, a 2 per 
cent, aqueous solution of an anilin stain (preferably gentian violet) 
is dropped on the preparation until its surface is completely 
covered ; thereupon 

3. While in the same position, the preparation is passed 
through the flame or held somewhat above it until a slight steam 
arises from the staining solution. 

4 Wash with water ; then 8 to 10 seconds in a 2 per cent, solu- 
tion of acetic acid; then a second careful washing in water. 

5. The cover glass is laid upon the slide, the water is removed 
from the upper side of the cover glass by means of filter paper, 
and the preparation is examined (directly in water) by a magnifica- # 
tion of at least 400 diameters, or by oil immersion. 

Klett recommends a subsequent warming of the stained 
preparation in order to demonstrate the capsules of the anthrax 
bacilli. Klett described his process as follows : 

The cover glass preparation, well dried in the air, and, if pos- 
sible, allowed to lie for a few hours, is passed three times through 
the flame, lege artis, then dipped in an aqueous rapid stain (violet or 
f uchsin) and washed. Finally, the wet cover glass is laid upon the 
slide and examined in the ordinary manner. 

Lupke, while approving Klett's method, recommended a still 
simpler procedure ; viz., dropping a 2 per cent, solution of gentian 
violet on the preparation, then heating slightly and washing 
thoroughly with water. As the author has frequently convinced 
himself, this method really makes possible a very beautiful 
differentiation of the anthrax bacilli into capsules and individual 
cells. 

A second method of staining capsules, which was proposed by 
Klett, renders possible a fine double stain characteristic of anthrax 
bacilli. A cover glass preparation, well dried in the air, and 
preferably left lying for a few hours, is to be made up properly in 
the ordinary manner. Then an alcoholic aqueous solution of 
methylene blue is dropped on the cover glass ; afterward the 
preparation is warmed over a flame until it boils and is sub- 
sequently washed thoroughly with distilled water. It is then 
treated with an alcoholic aqueous solution of fuchsin for not more 
than five seconds and washed again. By this method of staining, 
the bacterial bodies appear dark-blue, the membranes a light 
rose-red and their contours dark-red (Fig. 1, lithographed plate). 

Finally, W. Raebiger has proposed a very similar process for 
demonstrating the capsules on anthrax bacilli. Raebiger dissolves 



580 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



15 to 20 gm. of gentian violet in 100 to 150 gm. of formalin, allows 
the preparation to stand over night, and niters ; the filtered 
preparation is dropped on the air-dried preparation without 
previous heating and, after 20 seconds, is washed off. Capsules 
are then demonstrated only on anthrax bacilli. Spurious capsules, 
as Raebiger asserts, never appear after this procedure. 

Klett has called attention to the fact that the capsules are 
very weak when the preparations are taken from cadavers which 
have lain for a long time. According to his method, however, he 
was able to demonstrate capsules very plainly on anthrax bacilli 
four days post mortem. In anthrax in horses Schmidt was able to 
make the capsules appear only to a slight extent. 

In the ordinary method of staining, in which the capsules are- 
not differentiated, we may observe that the ends of the individual 

Fig. 198. 




Fig. 199. 



Anthrax bacilli from the cardiac blood 
of a mouse, with "clavate polar 
swellings." X 500 diameters. 



s / 




\\ 



Cadaver bacilli (edema bacilli from the 
subcutis of an artificially infected 
rabbit). X 500 diameters. 



bacterial cells are broader than the remainder of the cell body 
(Fig. 198). This phenomenon, previously characterized as clavate 
end-swelling, arises in consequence of the contraction of the middle 
of the bacterial body before division (Johne). 

Anthrax bacilli are found especially in the capillaries of the 
internal organs, particularly the spleen, intestines, mesenteries 
and lungs. On account of the retention of the anthrax bacilli in 
the capillaries, their demonstration in the large vascular trunks 
during life may be a difficult matter. 



Differentiation of Anthrax Bacilli and So-called Cadaver 
Bacilli. — Attention has already been called (page 575) to the fact 




ANTHRAX 581 

that in the alimentary canal of living animals, edema bacilli are 

found and that these organisms penetrate from the intestines into 

the neighboring organs, especially into the spleen and liver, if the 

•cadaver has lain unopei.el for from 12 to 24 hours. For this 

reason the edema bacilli which occur in cadavers, or, as they may 

be briefly termed, cadaver bacilli, are of great practical significance 

in the bacteriological diagnosis of anthrax. 

Cadaver bacilli also form spurious threads, FrG - 3 °0. 

like anthrax bacilli. The individual bacilli, ,- - r " 

however, are more slender and longer than 

the anthrax bacilli and are not squarely cut , 

at the ends like the latter, but are rounded, § 

or end obliquely. Furthermore, the cadaver 

bacilli form spores in the carcass (Fig. 199) 

and possess no capsule like anthrax bacilli. 

It sometimes occurs, to be sure, that a cap- n n 

--.,„..,., ,, Cadaver bacilli with pseu- 

sule-like, lamt, lateral seam appears on the do-i-aps'ules, from the 

cadaver bacilli. This spurious capsule, how- spleen of an asphyxiated 

r guinea pig, kept in an 

ever, is usually unilateral and without an incubator, x 500 diam. 

external contour (Fig. 200), since it arises 

l)y the retraction of the serum albumen contained in the prepara- 
tions. Finally, the cadaver bacilli are discolored by the Gram 
method, while the anthrax bacilli remain well stained after the 
completion of this method. 

Occurrence. — Anthrax occurs in all domesticated animals and 
in man. The sheep is most susceptible, followed by cattle and 
horses. Wild members of the deer family and also hare are 
affected by anthrax. Finally, the disease may be transmitted to 
fowls (chickens, ducks and geese). The hog is usually resistent 
toward anthrax infection and shows in this relation a great 
similarity to man. 

Clinical Symptoms. — The cliuical symptoms of anthrax vary 
according to the mode of infection and the susceptibility of the 
species of animal. Anthrax bacilli enter either by way of the 
alimentary tract or through the injured skin. Artificial anthrax 
infection maybe produced by rubbing the bacilli into the uninjured 
skin. Alimentary or intestinal anthrax is always due to a spore 
infection, for the spore-free bacilli are rendered innocuous by the 
gastric juice (Koch, Falk). Natural skin-infection, which may also 
~be produced by the bacilli, is connected with the presence of wounds. 



582 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



Fig. 201. 



Pathologico -anatomical Findings. — The spleen exhibits the 
most important alterations. It is considerably swollen, blackish- 
red and of a fluid consistency, if the capsule is incised. Moreover, 
we observe a tar-like condition of the blood, hemorrhages in all 
organs, especially under the epicardium, and parenchymatous 
degeneration of the liver, heart and kidneys. Finally, yellow 
gelatinous or hemorrhagic infiltration may be present in the sub- 
cutaneous, submucous and subserous tissues. 

In hogs, anthrax is characterized by decided cervical edema. 
Swelling of the spleen in anthrax of hogs may be absent. 

Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis. — The following diseases 
may be mistaken for anthrax : 

(1) Malignant edema ; (2) petechial fever ; (3) hemorrhagic 
septicemia of cattle ; (4) blackleg ; (5) sepsis ; (6) intoxications ; (7) 
splenic tumors in consequence of metabolic infarcts or torsion of 
the spleen. 

Anthrax, except in the hog, in which animal the bacterial find- 
ings in the blood and in the pathologically-altered foci is decisive, 

is distinguished from all these dis- 
eases by the characteristic splenic 
tumor, as well as by the finding 
of numerous non-motile and mor- 
phologically well - characterized 
rods in the spleen. In acute 
anthrax in cattle and horses and 
in anthrax of hogs, the bacilli in 
the spleen may not be numerous. 
In such cases the mesenteric 
glands ought to be examined in 
cattle and horses (Fiorentini), and 
the edematous infiltrated areas of 
the subcutis in hogs, for the pur- 
pose of detecting the presence of 
the anthrax bacilli. In doubtful 
cases, animal experiments and bacteriological cultures must decide. 
The anthrax bacillus kills mice, as a rule, within thirty-six hours ; 
guinea pigs and rabbits within forty-eight hours. In plate cultures, 
one observes, after twenty-four to thirty-six hours, by a slight 
magnification, quite characteristic colonies which are formed of 
bundles of anthrax threads "like locks of hair" (Fig. 201). It 
should be noted that for the differentiation of the anthrax bacilli 




Anthrax colony from an agar plate 

culture 24 hours old. 

X 35 diameters. 



ANTHRAX 583 

from edema bacilli inoculation of mice is not sufficient, since, 
strangely enough, in mice, edema bacilli occur also in the blood. 
Furthermore, attention may be called to the fact that the virulence 
of anthrax bacilli is weakened by putrefaction, and, in fact, may be 
entirely destroyed. A negative result from inoculation with putre- 
fying blood from suspected carcasses can not, therefore, be consid- 
ered as proof of the absence of anthrax. 

With reference to metabolic infarcts in the spleen in conse- 
quence of torsion of this organ, attention has already been called 
(page 347) to the fact that this may lead to a quite considerable 
increase in the volume of the spleen. This increase in volume, 
however, is distinguished from anthrax tumor by the pronounced 
firm character. A fluid condition of the spleen, such as exists in 
anthrax, never occurs. The metabolic infarcts, moreover, are dis- 
tinguished by their conical contours. Furthermore, we may demon- 
strate the emboli directly, in the branches of the splenic arteries. 

Procedure With the Meat of Antpracic Animals. — Sec. 
31 of the Imperial law of June 23, 1880, and May 1, 1894, concerning 
the prevention and suppression of animal plagues, prescribes that 
" animals which are affected with anthrax or suspected of being 
affected with this plague, shall not be slaughtered"; and Sec. 33 of 
this law declares that " the carcasses of dead or slaughtered 
anthracic animals or of animals suspected of being affected with 
this plague must be immediately rendered innocuous. The skin- 
ning of these animals is forbidden." 

This measure is primarily dictated by veterinary police consid- 
erations. How shall we judge the meat from, a sanitary police 
standpoint ? Is the meat of animals affected with anthrax injurious 
to health? 

Forensic Judgment of the Meat of Anthracic Animals. — 
Bollinger has already called attention to the fact that anthrax is not 
so easily transmitted to man by the consumption of meat as has 
been generally assumed. Accordingly, he combated the former 
general assumption (Heusinger) that, as a rule, cases of meat 
poisoning are to be ascribed to the consumption of meat of anthracic 
animals. Bollinger's view has received extensive confirmation by 
recent observations. It has been repeatedly shown that in cases of 
emergency slaughter of anthracic animals, the consumers, sometimes 
numbering hundreds, remain well, while the butchers who injure 
themselves during the slaughtering become affected with anthrax. 



58-4 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

Thus, Behring described a case in which the meat of a bull, 
subjected to emergency slaughter on account of anthrax, was eaten 
without any harm, while the butcher and his mother, who assisted 
at the slaughter, contracted malignant pustule. Similar cases may 
be cited in large numbers. Mayer reported concerning an enzootic 
of anthrax in Alsace in which five diseased cows were utilized 
as human food. Thereupon, in one village nine persons who had 
come in contact with the raw meat, took sick. Of this number, 
two died with pustules on the thumb or arm and the remaining 
patients had pustules on the hands. " Of the numerous persons 
who had eaten the meat, only three became affected, and they 
recovered." 

Accordingly, the meat of anthracic animals ordinarily produces 
no injurious consequences after being eaten, and this experimental 
fact is sufficiently explained by the biological peculiarities of the 
anthrax bacilli. As already explained, no spores develop in the 
meat or by ordinary methods of preservation in cool places, even 
upon its surface. Spore-free anthrax bacilli, however, are destroyed, 
by the secretions of the stomach. 

Resistance op Anthrax to Higher Temperatures. — Anthrax 
bacilli are destroyed by heating to a temperature of 55° to 60° C. 
for ten to fifteen minutes. For the destruction of the' spores, on the 
other hand, a boiling temperature for several minutes is required. 

Although experience teaches, and science has given us a per- 
fectly satisfactory explanation of the fact, that the meat of anthracic 
animals, as a rule, does not produce harmful results after being 
eaten, it must, nevertheless, be treated as a dangerous food material, 
quite aside from the stringent provisions of the Imperial Animal 
Plague Law. For, 

1. The possibility of infection from meat which contains only 
the bacilli is not excluded, if there are lesions in the mouth, pharynx 
and esophagus of the consumers. 

2. Under especially favorable external conditions, as shown by 
Schmidt-Mulheim, spores may form on the surface of the skinned 
carcasses (high external temperature during the preservation of the 
meat in badly ventilated rooms), whereby exceptionally an intestinal 
infection may be produced. 

3. It should not be forgotten that anthracic meat which con- 
tains only bacilli may produce an infection by mere handling ; for 
example, during the process of cutting up, if the persons thus 
engaged have lesions on their fingers. Thus, for example, in 



ANTHRAX 585 

Germany, between 1886 and 1890, 363 human beings were affected 
with the skin form of anthrax. They were mostly butchers, 
knackers and other persons occupied with the slaughtering, 
skinning and burning of animals. Among the 363 human cases of 
anthrax, not less than 187 were butchers and knackers. In 1894 
there were 109 cases of the transmission of anthrax to man in 
Germany, with 14 fatal terminations ; in 1896, 82 cases, with 15 fatal 
terminations ; and in 1900, 62 cases, 10 of which died.* 

Concerning primary intestinal anthrax in man, Baumgarten 
states, " the second form under which human anthrax appears is the 
primary intestinal anthrax which was formerly known as mycosis 
intestinalis. Bollinger, and especially E. Wagner, deserve credit for 
having referred to the forms of anthrax this previously much 
observed but not thoroughly understood disease. Later observa- 
tions completely confirm the views of these authors. The majority 
of cases have been observed in persons who work on animal skins, 
especially in the preparation of animal hair. In a case of this sort, 
E. Wagner succeeded in microscopically demonstrating, on the hair, 
spore-bearing rods which were identical with anthrax bacilli. The 
origin of the infection was thus discovered. The anthrax spores 
passed from the fingers to the food, thence into the stomach and 
from thence into the intestines of the patient." 

Appendix. — Perroncito reported as follows concerning a disease 
resembling anthrax : In Sardinia a peculiar epizootic disease pre- 
vails among horses, asses, cattle and hogs, and is transmissible to 
man. Of the various experimental animals, rabbits, guinea pigs and 
fowls are susceptible. The disease in question closely resembles 
anthrax in its course and clinical symptoms, but sometimes appears 
also under the form of hematuria or hemoglobinuria. Perroncito 
believed that he had found Proteus virtdentissimus as the micro- 
organism which caused this disease. Probably the disease 
investigated by Perroncito was the hematuria of Sardinian cattle, in 
which Sanfelice and Loi demonstrated piroplasma to be the cause 
of the disease (page 537). 



* A case which is very instructive in regard to traffic in anthracic meat 
occurred in the Swiss village of Gex. Of the 300 to 400 persons who ate of the 
meat of an anthracic beef animal in that town, only one, a woman who received 
an injury on the forearm in cutting up the head of the animal, became affected 
with the disease. A dog which had gnawed a raw bone became infected. The 
anthrax infection in the dog took place on the nose, and. without doubt, from a 
wound which the dog received while fighting with a cat over the bone. 



586 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



(b) Aphthous Fever. 

Aphthous fever possesses great interest for experts in the- 
practice of meat inspection, notwithstanding the fact that from a 
sanitary police standpoint it plays only an insignificant role. 
Aphthous fever is extensively disseminated by food animals, and 
this brings it about that many larger cattle yards and abattoirs 
become permanently affected. Since abattoirs are to such a great 
extent exposed to the danger of infection by aphthous fever, expert 
inspectors should give careful attention, for veterinary reasons, to 
this disease, both before and after slaughter. 

Occurrence. — Aphthous fever is a disease peculiar to hoofed 
animals. Occasionally it is said to be transmitted to cats and fowls. 
Cattle and hogs are most frequently affected with the disease, w.hile 
sheep are more rarely affected. Home reported also concerning the 
appearance of aphthous fever among reindeer in northern Sweden. 

Etiology. — Despite numerous investigations, it has not yet 
been possible to demonstrate the organism of aphthous fever. Klein 
in London several years ago believed he had found a specific diplo- 
coccus in cases of this disease. This finding, however, has not been 
substantiated. Siegel considered very delicate rods 0.7 }x in length, 
which he succeeded in isolating from the cadavers of human beings 
dead of " mouth disease," as identical with the organism of foot-and- 
mouth disease, but he was unable to identify these rods in case of 
the latter disease. Siegel later saw his error and acknowledged it. 
Finally, Schottelius reported that in punctate hemorrhages of the 
epicardium in a cow which suddenly died of aphthous fever he 
found a peculiar organism in the contents of aphthae when certain 
precautions were observed. This organism was said to grow slowly 
in colonies of a remarkable character. The colonies contained short 
and long series of very different sized, roundish bodies which, as a 
whole, were spherical, of which, however, many, especially those 
which were located on the ends, showed evaginations which in form 
resembled motile pseudopodia of the white blood corpuscles. 
Schottelius called these structures streptocytes in order to distin- 
guish them from streptococci. When injected with 1 cc. of a 
bouillon culture of eight days' growth, calves and young cattle 
showed a slight lever after twelve hours, a diminution of appetite 
and a cough, phenomena which persisted for two or three days. 



APHTHOUS FEVER 587 

Aphtha, however, did not appear and hogs utterly failed to react to 
inoculations of streptocytes. Kurth corroborated the finding of 
Schottelius. Kurth was unable, however, to produce aphthous fever 
artificially by inoculation with " Streptococcus involutus." 

The most comprehensive investigations concerning the organism 
of foot-and-mouth disease during the last ten years were made by 
Loffler, Frosch and Uhlenhut in the Berlin Institute for Infectious 
Diseases and later in the Hygienic Institute at Greifswald, as well as 
in connection with a Commission in the Imperial Health Office in 
Berlin. The skill and industry of these investigators, however, did 
not suffice to clear up the mystery which prevails with regard to 
the etiology of foot-and-mouth disease. The investigations in ques- 
tion, on the other hand, produced important results with regard to 
the nature of the infectious material. Attempts to infect the 
smaller experimental .animals with foot-and-mouth disease resulted 
negatively. Mice, guinea pigs, rats, rabbits, chickens, pigeons and 
ducks were refractory. Goats also exhibited no pronounced 
symptoms of disease, in spite of the fact that they were inoculated 
with large quantities of very virulent lymph. Two goats developed 
slight granulations at the point of inoculation. The hoofs, however, 
remained wholly unaffected. Attempts to produce artificial infec- 
tion in sheep in a typical manner were unsuccessful. Cattle and 
hogs reacted equally well to the infection. 

In the Institute for Infectious Diseases it was found possible to 
transmit the disease to calves by means, of the blood of animals 
which had been inoculated twelve to twenty-eight hours previously 
and had exhibited a rising fever. It was not found possible to pro- 
duce infection by means of feeding muscle meat, pieces of the spleen, 
liver, kidneys or contents of the intestines, but positive results were 
obtained by feeding the affected parts of organs. 

The contents of aphthae which were heated for fifteen minutes 
to a temperature of 50°, ten minutes to 70° and momentarily to 100° 
C. lost their virulence. In the Institute for Infectious Diseases the 
contents of aphthae were found to be still infectious after heating 
for half an hour to 50° C. 

The virus of foot-and-mouth disease is not influenced by cold. 
Lymph placed in a mixture of chloride of lime and ice and kept in 
a frozen condition ( — 48° C.) for about three hours, promptly 
infected the inoculated animals. 

The contents of aphthae, on the other hand, appear to possess 
only a slight resisting power against desiccation, since lymph which 
was dried on a sterilized plate in a desiccator over sulphuric acid 



588 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



in vacuo at a temperature of about, 22° 0- for eighteen hours did not 
produce, disease in the> [inoculated animals* Lymph which was 
dried on wood, stones and flannel at the living temperature and 
under diffuse sunlight likewise became inactive after twenty-four 
hours. 

Lymph also proved to have but little resisting power against 
disinfectants. It was found possible to destroy its virulence by an 
exjDosure for one-half hour to the following solutions in the strengths 

Fig. 202. 




W ' ' is 

|: ■■ I ^ r l . ''■''■'■ , , I ' I '/1 .1/1 ' 1 M^:&?St&& 

a 

iff .» i i m ^ 

W * 



Aphtha. Tip of beef tongue. 
a, Aphtha; b, epithelial erosion after bursting of the aphtha. 

indicated : Carbolic acid, 1 per cent.; formaldehyde, 2 per cent.; 
soda, 3 per cent.; hydrochloric acid, 1 per cent.; phosphoric acid, 1 
per cent.; milk of lime, 1 per cent. An interesting observation was 
made in filtering diluted lymphs through a Chamberland filter. It 
was found that the filtrate remained infectious. 

. Finally, in artificial transmission experiments, it was found by 
the Commission that the incubative period up to the outbreak of the 
fever was from one-half a day to six days, and up to the eruption of 
aphthae, it was from two to ten days. 



APHTHOUS FEVER 589 

Diagnosis. — Vesicles filled with a clear fluid (aphthae, see Fig. 
202, a) constitute the characteristic symptoms of aphthous fever. 
They appear in cattle most frequently on the nasal septum and on 
the toothless border of the upper jaw as well as on the tip and 
Literal surfaces of the tongue and on the mucous membrane of the 
cheeks and hard gums (mouth disease). When aphthae are present 
on the border and in the cleft of the hoofs, oue speaks of foot dis- 
ease. Aphthae are also observed on the udder and rarely in the 
pharynx, at the base of the horns and on the mucous membrane of 
the external genital organs. 

In hogs, aphthae are far more numerous on all four toes than 
on the head. Aphthae are also comparatively frequent on the tip 
of the snout. 

Aphthae persist for only a short time. They soon burst and 
leave behind a watery erosion. These erosions, as a rule, heal very 
quickly by proliferation of the epithelium or epidermis from the 
side. Previous to their healing, they are recognizable by the 
sharply-marked limits between the sound tissue and the eroded 
areas, which result from the bursting of the aphthae (Fig. 202, b). 
It should be observed that the erosions on the hoofs, especially of 
hogs, are characterized by a tendency to hemorrhages. Moreover, 
the sloughing-off of the hoofs is not a rare occurrence in hogs, in 
consequence of hoof disease. 

Differential Diagnosis. — The sequelae of aphthae in the mouth 
cavity may be confused with erosions following chemical or thermic 
agents, but especially with actinomycotic erosions ; and, on the 
toes, they may be confused with, for example, simple traumata. 
Such confusion is not possible when intact aphthae are present. 
Actinomycotic erosions, which are not infrequent on the mucous 
membrane of the cheeks and tongue of cattle, may be easily distin- 
guished from aphthous erosions. For the former, in contrast with 
the latter, are sharply delimited and possess a tough, leathery 
basis with punctate, depressed, yellow areas. In case of actinomyco- 
tic erosions, the fungiform papillae are destroyed ; these remain 
unaffected in aphthous fever (Leutsch). 

Simple traumata on the hoofs, which, especially in hogs, have 
led to confusion with foot-and-mouth disease, commonly affect 
only one toe, and, furthermore, are not restricted to a shedding 
of the epidermis, as is the case in bursted aphthae ; but they 
attack deeper-lying parts in cases where they become noticeable 
at all. 



590 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

In sheep so-called foot rot is frequently mistaken for foot-and- 
mouth disease. In case of foot rot there is an inflammation of 
the epidermis of the cleft of the hoof, in which, however, aphthae 
are absent. 

Judgment.— Parts of diseased animals affected with aphthae 
and fresh erosions must be regarded as dangerous food material 
in a raw condition, for aphthous fever is transmissible to man. 
The meat, on the other hand, as well as all other parts of aphthous 
animals, possesses, according to experts, no injurious properties. 
It is, therefore, a common practice to remove from these animals 
only those parts which form the seat of specific alterations. All 
other parts, however, are admitted to the market as suitable food 
material. 

With regard to parts of the body affected with aphthae and 
erosions, the usual procedure is not strictly correct. Some expert 
inspectors consider it sufficient to cut out the diseased parts and 
admit the rest of the organs to the market. Other inspectors 
order the total destruction of these organs. The one procedure 
is as unworthy of approval as the other. The diseased parts are 
conditionally utilizable. They may be admitted to the market 
after they have been scalded in boiling water, for the boiling 
temperature destroys the virus of aphthous fever, and by scald- 
ing, such valuable parts as the tongue may be saved for use as 
food. 

Sequels and Sudden Fatal Cases of Aphthous Fever. — 
Judgment in the case of sequelae should be essentially different 
from that in cases of aphthous fever. Chiefly in cattle, less fre- 
quently in hogs, chronic suppurative processes, as a result of 
aphthous fever, develop in the hoofs, hoof joints and udder, and 
may lead to pyemia. In such cases, not only the diseased parts, 
but also the whole musculature may acquire dangerous properties 
if the symptoms of pyemia are present (see page 561). 

In general, aphthous fever runs a benign course, if we dis- 
regard the sequelae. Sudden fatal cases may occur, however, in 
consequence of the disease, the origin of which is not fully under- 
stood (malignant foot-and-mouth disease). Lydtin observed fatal 
cases in consequence of aspiration of sloughed-off shreds of epi- 
thelium from the mouth and pharyngeal cavities. Other authors 
observed these results after aspiration of masses of food during 
rumination. In both cases death occurred from asphyxiation. 



pox 591 

The meat of such animals is, therefore, to be treated like that of 
asphyxiated animals. 

For the present we have no certain criteria for deciding how 
to judge the meat of animals in which multiple embolic myocarditis 
(numerous grayish-red and grayish-yellow spots, especially in 
the myocardium of the left ventricle) is found to be the cause of 
death (Johne). I have been unable either by personal inquiry 
or by examination of the literature to find any injury to health 
from eating such meat. From the reports of the Bavarian District 
Veterinarians it would appear that the meat of animals subjected 
to emergency slaughter on account of unfavorable symptoms is 
regularly eaten without injury. These veterinarians emphasize 
the fact that the meat in question, as a rule, showed no alteration. 
LofHer was able to kill hogs by injecting large quantities of the 
contents of aphthae, whereby an embolic myocarditis, resembling 
that which is found in cattle dead of malignant foot-and-mouth dis- 
ease, was found to be a most striking phenomenon. 

In reference to the skins of aphthous animals, the instruc- 
tions for carrying out Sees. 19 to 28 of the Imperial Plague Law 
prescribe as follows : " Skins of dead or slaughtered diseased ani- 
mals may be removed from the quarantine limits only in a com- 
pletely dried condition, except in cases where they are delivered 
directly to the tannery." 

• Since in the case of cattle it is customary in slaughtering 
to leave portions of the skin connected with the feet, the latter are 
subject to the same trade restrictions as the skins of aphthous 
animals. 

(c) Pox. 

In domesticated animals, two independent pox diseases occur: 
cow pox and sheep pox. Cow pox as well as sheep pox may be 
transmitted to man by subcutaneous inoculation. 

Cow Pox. 

Spontaneous cases of cow pox possess no sanitary police 
interest, since they represent benign local affections which never 
lead to the slaughter of the affected animals. The conditions are 
different, however, in the case of calves and bulls, in which pox is 
produced for the purpose of obtaining vaccine. These animals are 
slaughtered after removing the vaccine material for the purpose of 
determining the condition of their health. 



51)2 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

Judgment. — The meat of vaccine calves and bulls in most 
abattoirs is admitted to the market after the removal of the edema- 
tous infiltrated subcutis under the point of inoculation. No harm 
from eating snch meat has ever been observed. 

In contrast with this practice, Goltz urges that vaccine calves 
shall not be slaughtered until after the inoculation disease has run 
its course. Otherwise, he argues, the meat should be sold on the 
fteibank. Goltz bases his view on the following facts : (1) Vac- 
cine calves, at the time of the removal of the vaccine, exhibit a 
feverish condition ; (2) the disease is transmissible to man ; (3) 
swellings are observed in the skin and subcutis as well as in the 
corresponding lymph glands of the point of inoculation. Even if 
pox is not transmissible by the consumption of the meat, it should 
not be forgotten that the meat may be contaminated with pox virus 
in the process of cutting up. 

According to the author's view, the sale of the meat on the 
freibank is justified only in the case of such vaccine calves as show 
a temperature of over 40.5° C. at the time of the removal of the 
vaccine, or have lost weight in consequence of accidental intestinal 
catarrh. With rational feeding, vaccine calves increase in weight 
during vaccination. Contamination of the meat with the pox virus 
during slaughter may be prevented by previous disinfection of the 
points of inoculation, preferably by the vaccine physicians after the 
vaccine has been taken. 

Sheep Pox. 

Sheep pox is without significance in Germany for the reason 
that this disease has been exterminated by the operation of the 
Imperial Animal Plague Law of Germany (prohibition of sheep pox 
vaccination). Merely the malignant form of sheep pox, in which 
the so-called cadaveric and gangrenous pox arises, would be of 
interest in meat inspection, sfnce animals affected with the benign 
form are not usually brought to slaughter. 

Judgment. — The meat of animals affected with benign pox is to 
be treated in different ways, according to the stage of the disease : 
In the eruption and maturation stage of the disease as a spoiled or 
inferior food material ; in the healing stage, however, with the ani- 
mal in a good nutritive condition, as a marketable food material. 

In cases of cadaveric and gangrenous pox, however, which, 
especially in very young and very old animals, often leads to the 



RABIES 593 

development of fatal cases of sepsis, the meat, like that of all food 
animals suffering with septic disease, is to be considered as a 
dangerous food material. The following regulations of the instruc- 
tions of the Imperial Animal Plague Law refer to the skins of 
variolous sheep : 

Section 97 10 . " Skins of dead or slaughtered variolous sheep 
may be removed from the quarantine limits only in a completely 
dried condition, except in cases where they are to be delivered 
directly to the tannery." 

(d) Rabies. 

General. — Rabies possesses quite subordinate importance for 
meat inspection. The official reports concerniug the distribution of 
animal plagues make mention each year of rabies in cattle, sheep 
and hogs. The number of these cases, however, is always very 
small. 

The Etiology of rabies is thus far unknown. 

Diagnosis.. — For the diagnosis of rabies in food animals, the 
history, especially the determination of a previous dog bite, is 
of importance. For the rest, the negative pathologico-anatomical 
findings and the presence of indigestible material in the stomach 
is -characteristic of rabies. A certain diagnosis is made possible 
only by subdural, intraocular or intracerebral inoculation of cerebral 
substance (pons varolii) into rabbits. With intracerebral inocula- 
tion, the incubative period, as shown by Leclainche and Morel, is 
shorter than with subdural or intraocular inoculation. The histo- 
logical diagnosis of rabies, recommended by Babes, Van Gehuchten 
and Helis (pericellular accumulations of leucocytes in the medulla 
and especially in the plexiform ganglion of the vagus), is not reliable, 
since it may fail in the case of animals killed during the progress of 
the disease. 

Judgment. — The transmission of rabies by eating the meat of 
rabid domesticated animals has never been observed. Nevertheless, 
the meat of rabid animals is to be absolutely excluded from the 
market, since infection may arise in cutting it up. In Copenhagen, 
in 1857, a veterinary student with a wound on his finger did a post 
mortem examination on a dog dead of rabies, and died ; a few years 
ago a similar case occurred with a student in Dresden in conse- 



594 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

quence of an injury received during a post mortem examination of 
a rabid dog. It should be remembered in this connection that the 
virulence of the most important carriers of rabies virus, the central 
nervous system and salivary glands, does not disappear, as previ- 
ously assumed, within twenty-four hours, but, according to von 
Ratz, only after fourteen to twenty-four days. The Russian 
veterinarian, Wyrsykowski, instituted careful experiments concern- 
ing the action of the gastric juice on the virus of rabies. Proceeding 
from the fact that after eating the meat and even the brain of 
animals dead of rabies no illness occurred, Wyrsykowski tested the 
action of artificial gastric juice upon the medulla oblongata of an 
affected rabbit, in a thermostat. Of twenty-one rabbits which were 
inoculated with artificially-digested rabies virus, none contracted 
rabies, while seventeen control animals, inoculated with undigested 
virus, died of the disease. 

The Imperial Animal Plague Law prohibits the slaughter of 
rabid animals and animals suspected of rabies, as well as all traffic 
in the meat. 

Sec. 86 : " The slaughter of rabid animals or animals suspected of being rabid 
and the sale or utilization of individual parts, milk, or other products of such 
animals, is forbidden." 

Sec. 39 : " The carcasses of slaughtered rabid animals or animals suspected 
of being rabid must be immediately rendered innocuous. The skinning of such 
animals is forbidden." 



(e) Glanders. 

Nature and Occurrence. — Glanders is an infectious disease of 
solipeds (horses, asses and their crosses, mules and hinnies). The 
typical symptom of this disease is the appearance of tubercles 
which are caused by the entrance of specific bacilli (the glanders 
bacilli). In consequence of the disintegration of the tubercles, 
ulcers arise on the mucous membrane. In the parenchymatous 
tubercles the disintegration is characterized by a cloudiness which 
progresses from the center outwards. During this disintegration, 
hyperemia and cellular inflammation occur in the surrounding 
tissue. Calcification of the glanderous tubercles has not been 
observed (Csokor, Hahn, Kitt, Schiitz). A specific affection of the 
corresponding lymph glands is associated with the tubercles and 
ulcers. Glanders is communicable to cats, dogs, and goats as well 
as to man. Sheep are less susceptible. Hogs are nearly refractory 
and cattle are entirely immune. Among the experimental animals, 



GLANDERS 



595 



field mice and guinea pigs react very promptly to inoculations. In 
zoological gardens, glanders lias frequently been observed in 
carnivorous animals after feeding on glanderous horse meat. 

Bacteriology. — Glanders is produced by the glanders bacilli 
which were discovered by Loffler and Schiitz. They are non-motile, 
short and thicker than the tubercle bacilli (Fig. 203). They may, 
however, grow into threads and form lateral branches. For this 
reason the organism of glanders has been classed with the fungi 
(streptothrices), or with the group of actinomyces bacteria. The 
formation of spores has not been demonstrated. Glanders bacilli 
are best stained in an alkaline or carbolized solution of methylene 



Fig. 204. 



Fig. 203. 



= \ 



\\ 



Glanders bacilli from a 

young potato culture. 

X 500 diameters. 




Smear of glanderous pus from the inguinal gland of a 
guinea pig, with unusually numerous bacilli. The 
nuclei of pus cells have split up into numerous small 
spherules. X 500 diameters. 



blue. A specific staining method for the glanders bacilli has not 
been perfected, in spite of numerous efforts in that direction. We 
are, therefore, not in a position to demonstrate glanders as we may 
tuberculosis, simply by staining the bacilli, since the glanders bacilli 
are without morphological peculiarities. Pure cultures and inocu- 
lation, however, give more reliable criteria for identification. 
Cultures of glanders bacilli on potato exhibit a honey-like layer 
after two days, which in six to eight days becomes opaque and at 
the same time assumes " a color resembling the red of cuprous 
oxide." (According to Loffler, the somewhat similar yellowish- 
brown potato cultures of green pus are distinguished by the fact 
that small quantities smeared on filter paper and exposed to the 



596 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



fumes of ammonia immediately turn bluish-green, while cultures of 
glanders bacilli remain unchanged.) 

The glanders bacillus offers but slight resistance to disinfec- 
tants. Water at a temperature of 55° C. kills it after an exposure 
of ten minutes. 

The glanders bacilli are found chiefly in the pathologically 
altered parts. They are not always found in the blood, and, as a 
rule, only in small quantities. Even in the specifically-altered foci, 
the number of glanders bacilli demonstrable by staining is usually 
small. 

A highly important and remarkable fact in the diagnosis of 
glanders was demonstrated by Unna and confirmed by Schutz, 
namely, that the cell nuclei in the glanderous foci become dissolved 

Fig. 205. 




Nasal septum of horse with glanderous ulcers and a cicatrix. 



in a remarkable manner (dissolution of the nuclei, chromatotexis, 
according to Unna). Schutz also demonstrated that the chromatin 
of the nuclei of the round cells in the glanderous foci is not 
destroyed, as in other mortifying processes, but is preserved even 
when the nuclei are completely disintegated. The nucleus first 
breaks up into four parts which lie close together and form a small 
mass of nearly the form of the nucleus (Fig. 204). Later the indi- 
vidual granules become separated from the nuclear mass and are 
distributed in the protoplasm of the cell, or the nuclear mass is 
disintegrated and distributed uniformly in the cell substance. The 
nuclear debris retains all the properties of the nuclear substance, 
especially its affinity for stains. 

Duking Life. — The most important alterations in chronic 
glanders, and those to which meat inspectors should give chief 
attention in the examination before slaughter, are the following : 



GLANDEES 597 

The glanderous tubercles in and under the skin, the characteristic 
farcy ulcers of the skin, indolent phlegmons on the extremities and 
head, ushered in with the formation of ulcers, typical swelling of the 
lymphatic vessels and glands, and, finally, glanderous tubercles, 
ulcers and scars which are observed upon an inspection of the nasal 
cavities. 

Anatomical Findings. — We may first emphasize in this connec- 
tion the fact already mentioned on page 157, that in cases of 
glanders it is absolutely necessary to dissect the head and make a 
careful examination of all parts of the mucous membrane of every 
slaughtered horse. The laryngeal lymph glands of all slaughtered 
horses should also be subjected to a detailed examination. In 
addition to the alterations which are demonstrable during life on 
and under the skin and in the inferior third of the nasal cavities, 
the specific alterations in the accessory cavities of the nose, in the 
guttural pouch, and in the larynx and trachea are present in cases 
of chronic glanders. In the great majority of cases of glanders, the 
lungs are also affected. In 52 cases examined by Bollinger, the 
lungs were found affected in only 4 cases, and in only 10 of the 216 
post mortem examinations made in the Berlin High School. The 
lungs are permeated either with embolic glanderous tubercles, or 
with infiltrations varying in size from a walnut to a child's head, 
the so-called glanderous growths. Furthermore, embolic glander- 
ous foci, as a result of glanders of the skin or respiratory apparatus, 
may appear in other organs, especially in the spleen, liver, kidneys, 
testicles, brain, heart muscles and bones. 

Diagnosis. — The diagnostic characters of the glanderous 
tubercles are the grayish, transparent, glassy appearance, the red 
area as well as the sympathetic affection of the corresponding 
lymph glands (swelling and glanderous;tabercles on the cut surface). 
The glanderous growths in the lungs are distinguished from all 
other similar alterations by their diffuse grayish-white, soft or firm 
character, and the uniformly constant affection of the bronchial 
glands. 

Differential Diagnosis. — The number of diseases which may 
be and have already been confused with glanders is quite large. 
Especial mention should be made of contagious coryza, leukemia, 
croupous rhinitis, chronic catarrh of the nose, non-glanderous pul- 
monary tubercles and botryomycosis of the lungs. The positive 



598 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



differentiation of these processes from glanders should not be 
difficult for the expert inspector, ii attention is given to the charac- 
teristic symptoms of glanders in slaughtered auimals. 

In doubtful cases, the question must be decided by a bacterio- 
logical test. In intact farcy buds and in diseased lymphatic glands, 
we may make a reliable bacteriological diagnosis, since in these 
parts the glanders bacilli are present in pure cultures. Moreover, 
in these cases, all doubt may be removed by making a culture on 
potatoes. The diagnosis is not so easy when the material is con- 

Fig. 206. 




Old glanderous pulmonary tubercle, a, central necrotic portion; &, giant cells; 
c, boundary between necrotic portion and capsule with chromatic remains of 
disintegrated giant cells; d, connective tissue capsule. X 30 diameters. 



taminated (secretion from ulcerous broncho-pneumonic foci, etc.). 
In such cases experiments on animals are indispensable, and such 
experiments should be made preferably on guinea pigs, since field 
mice frequently die of intercurrent septicemia. Formerly male 
guinea pigs were used almost exclusively for inoculation, since the 
affection of the testicles, which may appear in the second week, was 
considered a good means of recognizing glanders. At present 
intraperitoneal inoculation of female guinea pigs is recommended 



GLANDERS 599 

(Besnie). It is stated that in these animals a purulent discharge 
takes place from the vagina after two days. According to Strauss, 
purulent orchitis appears in male guinea pigs after two days when 
the animals are inoculated iutraperitoneally and not subcutane- 
ously. 

Histology or Pulmonary Glanderous Turercles and their 
Differentiation from Entozoic Pulmonary Tubercles. — Accord- 
ing to Schiitz, recent embolic glanderous tubercles in the lungs of 
horses represent pneumonic foci about the size of grains of sand 
which are reddened and not sharply delimited, but which shade off 
gradually into the healthy neighboring tissue. The center of the 
glanderous tubercle, in consequence of mortification of the cellular 
exudation in the alveoli and the lung tissue in them, soon becomes 
cloudy and is not round, but is furnished with projecting- processes, 
or is sometimes wedge-shaped (Fig. 206, a). The central part of 
the tubercles is always sharply delimited from the more deeply 
reddened periphery. A section through quite recently developed 
glanderous tubercles shows in the center as well as on the periphery 
a granulated character (miliary fibrinous pneumonia). In older 
glanderous tubercles, the granulation disappears in consequence of 
the necrosis of the pneumonically-altered parts. The center 
becomes smooth, dry and grayish-yellow and around the center a 
transparent gray capsule is formed (Fig. 206, d). The center of 
glanderous tubercles consists of a peculiar detritus, which can not 
be compared either with pus or with cheese and takes an unusually 
deep stain on account of the abundance of chromatin. Calcification 
is wanting. On the border between the central necrosed portion of 
the glanderous tubercle and the capsule, giant cells and plasma 
cells are found (Unna), both of which are characterized by their 
unusual size. In fresh glanderous tubercles, the giant cells and 
also the plasma cells are wanting. Later, the giant cells dis- 
integrate, while the dissolved chromatin persists (Fig. 206, c). 

According to Schiitz, entozoic pulmonary tubercles (compare 
page 328) are caused by parasites which penetrate into the capil- 
laries or remain lying in the larger vessels of the lungs. In the 
first case a chronic miliary pulmonary inflammation arises and in 
the second a chronic inflammation of the vascular walls with 
obturating thrombosis. 

Tubercles of the first form consist of infiltrated alveoli and a 
delicate capsule. The center of the tubercles is formed almost 
exclusively of cellular tissue and in it a parasite is to be demon- 



600 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



strated (Fig. 207). After the death of the parasite, it first becomes 
calcified and, later, also the whole tubercle, with a thickening of 
the connective tissue membrane. The tubercles possess a diameter 
of 1.5 to 3.5 mm., and the parasites in them possess a diameter of 
42 to 81 //. 

Entozoic tubercles of the second sort are composed of a cap- 
sule and the plug. The capsule is formed by the thickened vas- 
cular wall and is usually strengthened by the chronically-inflamed 
neighboring pulmonary tissue. The central plug is a thrombus 
which incloses the parasite and may either calcify or soften. In 
softened tubercles the parasite is less frequently demonstrated 

Fig. 207. 




Entozoic pulmonary tubercles of a pneumonic form in the horse (after Olt). a, inflamed 
alveoli; b, part of a nematode larva ; c. connective tissue capsule of the parasitic 
focus. X 30 diameters. The parts of the worm are magnified 80 diameters. 

than in calcified ones, since in the former case it rapidly dis- 
integrates in consequence of fatty metamorphosis. 

In the differentiation of glanderous tubercles from entozoic 
tubercles, it is important to note that in glanders, recent tubercles 
in various stages of development regularly occur in addition to the 
old glanderous tubercles. 



Pseudo-Glanders. — Nocard isolated from horses suspected of 
being affected with the skin form of glanders a pseudo-glanders 
bacillus. By means of intraperitoneal inoculation it was distin- 
guished from the true glanders bacillus by the fact that it could be 
stained by the Gram method, killed mice in from 24 to 48 hours, 



TUBERCULOSIS G01 

with the formation of an abscess at the point of inoculation, and 
produced in horses only local abscesses and not glanders. 

Judgment. — Sec. 43 of the Imperial Animal Plague Law con- 
tains the following regulation relative to glanders : " The carcasses 
of dead or slaughtered glanderous animals must be immediately 
rendered innocuous. The skinning of such animals is forbidden." 

This provision renders superfluous for the practice of meat 
inspection all further discussion concerning the harmful or harm- 
less character of the meat of glanderous animals. It is of scien- 
tific and forensic interest, however, to discuss the question whether 
glanders may or may not be communicated to man by means of the 
meat of glanderous animals. It has already been mentioned that 
carnivorous animals in zoological gardens have frequently con- 
tracted glanders in consequence of being fed upon the meat of 
glanderous horses. A similar infection in man has not yet been 
observed with certainty. In fact, it has been shown in many cases 
that the meat of glanderous horses has been eaten by man without 
harm ; as, for example, during the siege of Paris (Decroix). 

' Baumgarten ascribes the different reaction of man and carnivor- 
ous animals to the consumption of the meat of glanderous horses 
to the fact that the latter in masticating the bone connected with 
the meat receive wounds in the mouth cavity and thus become 
infected ; for primary intestinal infection appears not to occur in 
any animal, since specific glanderous affection of the intestinal wall 
has thus far never been observed. This assumption can, however, 
no longer be maintained since the recent investigations of Nocard, 
which have been confirmed by Schiitz. For, in these investigations 
it was shown that primary intestinal glanders could be produced 
by feeding glanders bacilli. Moreover, the danger of infection 
from glanders exists both in masticating bones and in merely 
handling glanderous meat, whether wounds are already present or 
are received from projecting bone splinters. For this reason the 
meat of glanderous animals must be considered as a dangerous food 
material. 

(f) Tuberculosis. 

1. — Nature and Occurrence. 

Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease, which is caused 
and disseminated by the tubercle bacillus. It is the most frequent 



002 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

disease of food animals and, next to septicemia, is their most 
important disease from a sanitary standpoint. Tuberculosis occurs 
in all our domesticated animals. With regard to the frequency of 
the disease in different species of domesticated animals, however, a 
striking difference prevails. While the cases of tuberculosis among 
horses and.sheep must be considered as exceedingly rare, tubercu- 
losis is a frequent disease in hogs and a regular plague in cattle. 
With regard to the goat, it was formerly assumed that this animal 
was free from tuberculosis. Inoculation experiments, however, 
and more careful investigations at abattoirs have shown this view 
to be untenable. 

The frequency of the occurrence of tuberculosis in the two 
domesticated animals which are most affected varies within wide 
limits, according to the origin of the animals. Thus, in southern 
Germany, tuberculosis of hogs was formerly very rare, while even 
in the 70's Schiitz said of northern Germany, " tuberculosis in hogs 
possesses a scarcely-suspected distribution, as I have learned, 
partly from the reports of district veterinarians and partly from 
personal experience." At present tuberculosis of hogs is observed 
more frequently also in southern Germany, but by no means so fre- 
quently as in northern Germany. In the latter region the number 
of tuberculous swine, according to the abattoir reports, ranges from 
1 to 7 per cent. 

In the case of cattle, such variations in the occurrence of 
tuberculosis do not exist within the limits of Germany. Cattle 
which are maintained exclusively on pastures, like the American 
range cattle, Bukowina cattle and the cattle of the Russian Steppes, 
are nearly free from tuberculosis.* In stall-fed cattle, according to 
reliable parties, at least every fourth animal is tuberculous, calves 
excluded. This proportion is closely in accord with my own 
experience. The Imperial Health Office, at the request of the 
Imperial Chancellor, collected statistics concerning the occurrence 
of tuberculosis in the German Empire. According to these sta- 
tistics the number of cases of tuberculosis observed in the year 
1888-89 in cattle amounted to 0.33 per cent, of a total number of 
15,750,000. In the report, however, it was expressly stated that the 
determined percentage did not at all correspond with the actual 
conditions, since the statistics were not made upon a uniform basis 



* Concerning Australian cattle, it is also asserted they are free from tuber- 
culosis. This assertion, however, is shown to be untrue by an examination of 
meat imported from Australia. In Leipsic, for example, out of 621 beef quarters 
imported from Australia five were found to be tuberculous. 



TUBERCULOSIS 603- 

(presence or absence of public abattoirs, meat inspection, etc.). 
The percentages obtained in different parts of the Empire varied 
exceedingly. While, for example, it was stated that in the " Magde- 
burg and Brandenburg sugar cattle " almost every fifth animal was 
tuberculous, in the district of Angermimde no cases were found in 
13,000 slaughtered animals ; and in the district of Teltov, only 15 
cases of tuberculosis were demonstrated in 40,000 slaughtered ani- 
mals. The percentages obtained, as is emphasized in the report 
itself, can not lay claim even to approximate accuracy. 

A better idea of the distribution of tuberculosis among food 
animals is obtained from the reports of the different abattoirs. 

Frequency of Tuberculosis in Different Species of Food Animals, accord- 
ing to the Showing- of the Abattoir Reports.* 

(a) Cattle. — The percentage of tuberculosis among cattle 
slaughtered in public abattoirs in. different cities for different years 
ranged between 6.34 and 45.8 -per cent. 

(b) Calves. — Formerly the number of tuberculous calves was 
found to be extremely small ; for example, in the Saxony abattoirs it 
amounted to only 0.206 per cent, in 1889, .03 per cent, in 1890, and 
in Berlin .079 per cent, in 1890. At present the percentage of 
tuberculous calves has increased considerably and ranges, accord- 
ing to reports from slaughterhouses in Germany for different years 
between .05 and 1.07 per cent. 

(c) Sheep and Goats. — In both these animal genera cases of 
tuberculosis are rare. Nevertheless, both sheep and goats are sus- 
ceptible, as is sufficiently shown by its spontaneous occurrence and 
by inoculation experiments. In Saxony in 1890, .02 per cent, of the 
sheep were tuberculous, and in Berlin, during the same year, .0048 
per cent. These favorable conditions, however, were found only in 
sheep and goats living chiefly in the open air. As a result of keep- 
ing goats in stalls, they become tuberculous to the same extent as 
cattle. Eichhorn, for example, reported concerning a herd of goats 
in Dresden, in which 19, or 68 per cent., were shewn to be tuber- 
culous by the tuberculin test. In different parts of Germany for 
various years the percentages of tuberculous sheep were found to 
range between .0029 and 1.26. 



* The statistical data have been condensed into a much shorter form than in 
the German original. — Translator. 



(j()4 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

111 the Kingdom of Saxony, the percentage of tuberculosis in 
sheep, sank from .15 per cent, in 1894 to .07 per cent, in 1896 and 
.06 in 1899. This condition is connected with the fact that the 
pseudo-tuberculous alterations which occur in sheep were formerly 
sometimes confused in part with true tuberculosis. 

The percentage of tuberculosis in goats in different parts of 
Germany for different years ranged between .41 and 7.7 per cent. 

(d) The Hog, next to cattle, is most frequently affected with 
tuberculosis. Swine tuberculosis is, without doubt, as a rule, to be 
ascribed to feeding the milk of cows suffering from tuberculosis of 
the udder, or dairy by-products, especially the centrifugal slime of 
such milk. 

Bollinger in the 80's experimentally demonstrated that hogs 
could be infected by the milk of tuberculous cows and this has been 
subsequently corroborated by numerous unexceptionable observa- 
tions. In Hanover, Strose also observed cases of primary pul- 
monary tuberculosis in hogs. In various parts of Germany for 
different years the percentage of tuberculosis in hogs ranged 
between .21 and 7.7 per cent. 

(e) Horses. — In different parts of Germany for different years 
the percentage of tuberculosis in the horse ranged between .08 and 
1.6 per cent. 

Tuberculosis of the horse may arise in consequence of feeding 
raw, skimmed milk to colts, or of confining horses of any age in 
cow stalls. Walther observed a case of tuberculosis in a horse 
which had been confined for 1| years in a cow stall and which, on 
account of a poor appetite, had not been taken out of the stall for 
six months. 

Spontaneous tuberculosis also occurs in the ass (Nocard and 
Blanc). 

(f) Dogs. — Among dogs slaughtered in the Kingdom of Saxony 
in 1895, .25 per cent, were found tuberculous ; in 1896, 2.22 per 
cent; and in 1899, .21 per cent. 

Percentage of Tuberculosis as Affected by the Method of Reporting 
Cases. — The following figures may serve to indicate the extent to 
which the statistics on tuberculosis are affected by the accuracy of 
inspection and notification. In Berlin the percentage increased 
from 3.5 to 4.0 in former years to 11.5 in 1890, when the slight 



TUBERCULOSIS 605 

cases, restricted to one organ or one lymph gland, were taken into 
consideration. In Leipsic, the percentage increased from 15 per 
cent, in 1899 to 22.3 in 1890. Schwaimair found 15.62 per cent, of 
tuberculosis in Aschaffenburg when he included cases of simple- 
tuberculosis of the lymph glands, and only 10.37 per cent, when 
such cases were not included. 

Increase in the Frequency of Tuberculosis. — From the reports of 
abattoirs the fact becomes evident that tuberculosis in cattle, calves, 
and hogs is constantly increasing. For example, in Leipsic the^ 
following percentages of slaughtered cattle were found tuberculous: 
In 1888, 11.1 ; 1889, 14.9 ; 1890, 22.3 ; 1891, 26.7 ; 1893, 28.14; 1896, 
32.93; 1897, 36.4; 1898, 35 5; 1899, 32.93; 1900, 35.29. Similar 
observations were made in other slaughterhouses ; for example, in 
Berlin, Bromberg, Kiel, Liibeck, Schwerin, Zwickau, etc. 

In Schwerin, the percentage of tuberculosis increased from 10.7 
in 1886, to 26.6 in 1893 ; in Bromberg, from 20.7 in 1892-93, to 29.3 
in 1899-1900 ; in Berlin, from 11.5 in 1890-91, to 23.14 in 1899; in 
Bostock, from 17 in 1895-96, to 24 in 1896-97; in Zwickau, from 
26.6 in 1894, to 45.8 in 1899. In calves, the percentage increased in 
Berlin from 0.16 in 1890-91, to .61 in 1897-98 ; in Zwickau, from .17 
in 1894, to .47 in 1897 ; and in hogs, the percentage increased in 
Berlin from 1.16 in 1895-96, to 4.1 in 1899 ; in Bromberg, from 1.3 
in 1892-93, to 3.4 in 1895-96 ; in Kiel from 3.72 in 1893-94, to 6.51 
in 1896-97 ; in Leipsic, from 1.89 in 1893, to 3.12 in 1900 ; in Ros- 
tock, from 3 in 1895-96, to 4.7 in 1896-97 ; and in Zwickau, from 
1.22 in 1895, to 7.5 in 1897. 

The alarming increase in tuberculosis among hogs in different 
parts of north Germany is connected with the increase of cream- 
eries and is caused by feeding the raw by-products of the creamery,, 
especially the centrifugal slime (the Auth»or). Separator milk 
and buttermilk may also disseminate tuberculosis among calves fed 
upon these materials. Falk in Madgeburg found all of the hogs 
fattened by creamery owners and milk dealers to be tuberculous^ 
and in Danzig it was found, soon after opening the abattoir in that 
place, that hogs coming from different creameries were affected with 
tuberculosis to the extent of from 60 to 70 per cent. Furthermore, 
Borgeaud found among young pigs which were fed on centrifugal 
milk a regular enzootic of tuberculosis during which 2, 3 or more 
pigs per day died of tuberculosis. After the centrifugal milk was 
boiled before feeding, no further cases appeared. 

Recently, the frequency of tuberculosis among hogs and calves 



606 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

is beginning to diminish in certain localities. One would not err in 
ascribing this encouraging fact to the officially-prescribed burning 
of the centrifugal slime and the gradual increase in the practice of 
heating the milk before feeding. 

In Kiel, during recent years, a constant diminution in tubercu- 
losis among hogs is observed, as shown by the following figures : 
In 1896-97, 6.51 per cent.; 1898-99, 5.2; 1899-1900, 4.2; and in 
Zwickau, in 1896, 6.06 ; in 1897, 7.5 ; in 1898, 6.52 ; and in 1899, 3.89 
per cent. 

In Kiel a diminution in the frequency of tuberculosis in calves 
has been observed as follows : In 1896-97, 1.31 per cent.; 1898-99, 
1.3 ; 1899-1900, 0.85 per cent. Similar observations have been 
made at the abattoirs in Bromberg and Danzig. 

According to observations which the author made fifteen years 
ago, as abattoir veterinarian in Berlin, on cattle which came from 
various parts of Germany (East and West Prussia, Posen, Branden- 
burg, Silesia, Province of Saxony, Mecklenburg, Schlesv/ig-Holstein), 
at least 25 per cent, of the older cattle were to be regarded as 
tuberculous, when incipient cases and those which were restricted 
to one lymph gland were included. This result agrees perfectly 
with the observations which the author had occasion to make ten 
years ago in Stuttgart, as ambulatory clinician. 

According to the results of tuberculin tests, it must be assumed 
that the figures obtained in abattoirs were far below the actual con- 
ditions ; for Siedamgrotsky tested 259 cattle and obtained a typical 
reaction in 197, or 76 per cent. In the same manner, Bang and 
Nocard in Denmark and France found that in many herds the 
number of reacting cattle amounted to from two-thirds to three- 
fourths of the total number. Similar conditions prevail in England, 
Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and also in all' other countries in 
which cattle are not maintained exclusively on pasture. Moreover, 
in America it has been demonstrated by tuberculin tests that among 
stall-fed cattle the large majority is affected with tuberculosis. In 
Germany, the government district of Posen proves to be most 
excessively infected. In the Posen district of Schroda, it is said to 
be a rare occurrence that a post mortem i« made on a two to three 
year old beef animal without finding iUaffected with the disease and 
to a striking degree. In the region of Samter, the disease prevails 
on nearly all estates. 

Influence of Age Upon the Frequency of Tuberculosis. — The differ- 
ent classes of beef animals are not affected with tuberculosis to the 



TUBERCULOSIS 607 

same extent. Very great differences exist with regard to age. 
Young animals up to one year are very rarely affected with tubercu- 
losis. With each additional year of age, however, the frequency of 
the disease increases, so that in old milch cows, the veterans among 
iood animals, the greatest and most alarming dissemination of 
tuberculosis is observed. In the animals of Berlin butchers, who 
slaughtered only superannuated milch cows from ten to fifteen 
years or more of age, I found, on an average, 75 per cent, of the 
lungs of these animals tuberculous. Quite in harmony with this 
finding, Fischoeder in Bromberg found 56 per cent, of tuberculosis 
among cows in general, without regard to age. This increase in 
the frequency of tuberculosis with increasing age clearly indicates 
that in cattle the chief source of infection is to be found in cohabi- 
tation with diseased animals. In agreement with this condition, we 
liave the prevailing form of the primary infection in cattle (primary 
pulmonary tuberculosis), as well as the fact that in all regions in 
which a frequent change in a herd of cattle occurs, tuberculosis is 
of much more frequent occurrence. 

2. —Bacteriology and Pathogenesis. 

The tubercle bacillus, the discovery of which by Robert Koch 
in 1882 must be reckoned with the greatest achievements of scientific 
investigation and with the- most important conquests of medical 
knowledge, is a small, delicate, non-motile rod, five to six times as 
long as broad. It is from 3 to 4 jx in length. The tubercle bacillus 
may be cultivated on artificial nutrient media, blood serum and 
glycerine agar, but only at a tetoperature between 30° and 41° C. 
The optimum temperature is 37.5° C. 

In the living tissue, the tubercle bacilli exercise a slow but 
progressively destructive action through their constant prolifera- 
tion. With regard to the details of the pathogenic action of the 
tubercle bacilli, the excellent investigations of Baumgarten give tfs 
a deeper insight, after the nature of the tubercle bacillus has long 
been known pathologico-anatomically, as a result of numerous 
thorough and clever investigations. Inoculated tubercle bacilli at 
first multiply at the point of inoculation and penetrate the leucocyte 
wall set up in consequence of the operation. Fr*om the sixth day 
on, in case of inoculation into the eye, one observes the first 
epithelioid cells, the first typical elements of the tubercle, which 
arise from fixed tissue cells as a result of the specific irritation of 
the tubercle bacilli. With increasing multiplication of the bacilli, 



(JUS 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



the further formation of epithelioid cells ceases. Those already 
formed, however, swell, become multinuclear, and, as a rule, giant 
cells are formed within the tubercle (Fig. 209). The formation of 
giant cells fails to occur only in case of extensive penetration of the 
tubercle bacilli or of the penetration of very virulent bacilli. In 
tuberculosis of cattle, however, one always finds giant cells in large 
numbers. Simultaneously, a sharp connective tissue delimitation 
of the small tubercle becomes apparent. This, in contrast to the 
condition in man, attains in domesticated animals a considerable 
thickness in certain organs. 

Pig. 209. 



Fig. 208. 




Tubercle bacilli in smear from a 
bovine casefied bronchial gland. 
X 500 diameters. 




Giant cell from tuberculous tissue, with peripheral 
nuclei and isolated bacilli. X 500 diam. 



The tubercle thus formed is non-vascular, Its existence is, 
therefore, limited. It regularly becomes affected with regressive 
metamorphoses, caseation and calcification.* In cases of exclusive 
infection with tubercle bacilli, suppuration never occurs. This is 
always produced by a simultaneous, so-called, mixed infection with 
putrefactive bacteria. 

Caseation in the larger tubercles becomes macroscopically 
visible as a result of a cloudines's in the center. Calcification is 
distinguished by a grating sound on making a section with a knife, 
and effervescence after the addition of acids. Tuberculous primary 



* Among empirical meat inspectors, we unfortunately observe the lamentable 
error that processes are not considered as tuberculous until a pronounced casea- 
tion has taken place. It can not be too strongly urged upon empirical meat 
inspectors that fresh foci are much more dangerous than old, caseated and 
calcified ones. 



TUBERCULOSIS 609 

infections may be rendered harmless for the organism and may heal 
in consequence of calcification. In other cases, however, new 
tubercles constantly appear in connection with the degenerated ones, 
so that finally extensive pathological products arise from these 
invisible processes. 

The tinctorial behavior of the tubercle bacilli possesses special 
interest. They are stained with difficulty and take basic anilin 
stains only after long exposure, or under the influence of warm 
staining solutions, or with the addition of mordants (anilin oil, carbol) 
to the staining solutions. After the tubercle bacilli have taken the 
stain, however, they retain it even when treated with mineral acids. 
Tubercle bacilli are, therefore, characterized as acid-fast. This 
property is possessed by the tubercle bacilli as well as the lepra, 
smegma, hay, butter and manure bacilli (the group of acid-fast 
bacilli). This property of these bacteria is apparently due to the 
possession of a waxy or chitinous substance. Although this prop- 
erty can not be considered as a specific characteristic of the tubercle 
bacilli, it nevertheless makes possible the certain demonstration of 
tubercle bacilli in suspicious organic foci, since in such locations, 
with the exception of the mammary cisterns, and perhaps also cav- 
erns in the lungs, other acid-fast bacteria do not occur. The best 
known methods for the demonstration of the tubercle bacilli are 
those of Koch, Erlich and Ziehl. Ziehi's method, as modified by 
Gabbet (preliminary staining with carbol fuchsin and subsequent 
staining with sulphuric acid methylene blue) can be best recom- 
mended for practice, since it is the most speed}'. Tubercle bacilli 
are frequently demonstrable by staining only in more recent foci. 
In older foci, on the other hand, especially in the horse and hog, 
the demonstration is frequently impossible. In such cases diagnosis 
can be made certain by the inoculation of guinea pigs. 

Resistance- of Tubercle Bacilli to Heat and Preserving Reagents. — 
A large number of experiments have been made with regard to the 
Desisting power of tubercle bacilli against high temperatures. The 
gist of the results is that -the tubercle bacillus possesses only mod- 
erately strong resistance to high temperatures. This has been 
determined beyond question, especially by the experiments insti- 
tuted by the elder Bang, Schirl, Fischer, Yolsch, Grancher and 
Gennes. These authors experimented in part with sputum in which 
in consequence of the protecting mass of mucus surrounding the 
bacilli, the destruction of the latter was more difficult than when 
they were uniformly distributed. Bang determined that a temper- 



610 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

ature of 85° C. was sufficient to render the tubercle bacilli harmless. 
Jersin found that tubercle bacilli, when uniformly distributed, 
were killed by an exposure for ten minutes to 75° C, while a 
temperature of 65° C. did not have this effect. 

Forster, in cooperation with de Man, demonstrated by careful 
experiments that for the destruction of the tubercle bacilli the 
higher the temperature the shorter the required time of exposure. 
In the experiments of Forster, the tubercle bacilli were killed at a 
temperature of 55° C. in four hours ; at 60°, in one hour ; at 65°, in 
fifteeu minutes ; at 70°, in ten minutes ; at 80°, in five minutes; at 
90°, in two minutes ; at 95°, in one minute. 

Tubercle bacilli appear not to form spores ; at least in the 
investigations of Schmidt-Miilheim it was found that tubercle bacilli 
without exception lost their virulence at the coagulation tempera- 
ture for albumen, and he states, therefore, that one is scarcely 
justified in considering as spores the light-colored oval structures 
which one observes in the body of the tubercle bacillus (Fig. 210). 
. Against preserving materials, the tub- 
• • ercle bacillus, as shown by the investigations of 

n * Forster, are very resistant. He sprinkled pure 

- I jf cultures of tubercle bacilli with sterilized com- 

r C <7 \ mon salt and found the bacilli still infectious 

after two months. Pieces of tuberculous 

Tubercle baccili with organs, finely minced, were allowed to lie for 
light colored deposits, . d . , - . , „ ,.. 

strongly magnified. eighteen days in salt brine and were found by 

inoculation to be still capable of development. 
Later, Forster, in cooperation with de Freitag, investigated the 
influence of smoking upon the virulence of tuberculous masses 
of meat. He salted meat which was thickly covered with pearl 
disease masses and hung it, lege artis, in the smoke. In inocula- 
tion experiments with guinea pigs and rabbits, it was found that 
even salting with a subsequent smoking was not sufficient to 
destroy the infectiousness of the tuberculous masses. On the 
other hand, the virulence was lost when the salted pieces of 
meat were smoked for three or four hours at three different times 
or when, after one smoking, they were preserved for at least one 
and one-half to two months iii a dry room. 

Influence of Dilution Upon the Virulence of Tubercle Bacilli. — Quite 
remarkable is the influence of dilution upon the virulence of tubercle 
bacilli, especially in view of the previously entertained notion that 
a single tubercle bacillus was sufficient to injure the health. 



TUBERCULOSIS 611 

According to the experiments instituted by Gebhardt and Bollinger, 
the virulence of the milk of tuberculous cows, as demonstrated by 
intraperitoneal inoculation, was destroyed by a dilution of from 40 
to 100 times. As compared with such milk, however, the sputum 
of consumptive patients possesses a great infective power, for this 
material endures a dilution of even 1 : 1.00,000 when inoculated 
subcutaneously or intraperitoneally, or when inhaled. These 
methods of infection, however, are to be considered as very delicate 
tests for tuberculous virus, for, when administered per stomachum, 
2 cc. of sputum in a dilution of 1 :8 did not give positive results. 

Behavior of the Tubercle Bacillus When Ingested toith Food. — On 
the basis of artificial digestion experiments Falk first called atten- 
tion to the resisting power of the tubercle bacillus to the gastric 
juice. Strauss and Wiirtz found that tubercle bacilli still retained 
their virulence after remaining six hours in the gastric juice and 
that they were not destroyed until after 24 hours' exposure. 
Zagavi demonstrated that tubercle bacilli exposed to artificial 
gastric juice at a temperature of 38° C. still retained undiminished 
virulence after three to four hours, caused only a local tubercu- 
losis without a tendency to generalization after 7, 8 and 9 hours, 
and did not lose their virulence after an exposure of from 18 to 24 
hours. Similarly, Wesener determined, by feeding tuberculous 
sputum, that with small quantities "nothing happens." With 
large quantities, on the other hand, tuberculosis of the mesenteric 
glands is produced, and only after repeated feeding of large quan- 
tities does tuberculosis of the intestine and also of the liver and 
spleen arise. In accord with these statements are the experi- 
ments of Cadeac, who undertook to determine in guinea pigs 
under what external conditions alimentary tuberculosis is pro- 
duced. He fed tuberculous material to 56 guinea pigs, divided 
into four lots, which received 4, 3, 1 and 0.3 gm., respectively. It 
appeared from these experiments that alimentary tuberculosis was 
not produced with certainty, except when the guinea pigs received 
at least 1 gm. of tuberculous material moderately rich in bacilli. 
When the comparatively large amount of 0.3 gm. was fed, on the 
other hand, the result was uncertain, varying and limited. 

3. — Clinical Symptoms of Tuberculosis. 

Tuberculosis may produce various symptoms according to the 
extent of generalization and the preferred seat of the tuberculous 



612 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



alterations. A knowledge of these symptoms is of importance for 
expert meat inspectors, since, especially where insurance funds are 
maintained, it is their duty to identify visibly-diseased animals 
before slaughter. The two principal forms under which tubercu- 
losis appears clinically are tuberculous broncho-pneumonia (the 
formerly so-called lung plague) and tuberculosis of the serous 
membranes (so-called pearl disease). In the first form one 
observes in acute cases a frequent hollow cough which is easily 
induced artificially (while the healthy beef animal does not react 

Fig. 211. 




Mammary tuberculosis. Affection of both left quarters 



to pressure upon the larynx), and also a dry, rustling sound upon 
thoracic auscultation. These are the most frequent and reliable 
symptoms of tuberculous broncho- pneumonia. The nutritive con- 
dition is an inconstant criterion for the recognition of tuberculosis. 
It is only in acute cases of the disease that it is visibly disturbed. 
The hair is then dull and the skin is of a leathery character and 
crackles when raised. In such advanced cases one observes at the 
same time a slight duiness of the sensorium (dejected expression) 
and languid movements. 

In a cursory inspection in stock yards, serous tuberculosis is 
recognisable with certainty intra vitani only in the most advanced 



TUBERCULOSIS 



613 



stages and then simply by the above described serious disturbances 
of the nutritive condition. 

In special cases, however, the suspicion of tuberculosis may be 
changed to certainty by the presence of hard swellings in the 
lymphatic glands which are accessible to external examination, 
painless thickenings of the joints and a tuberculous affection of 
the udder. The latter represents an unusually characteristic affec- 
tion. There are either isolated firm tubercles in the udder, or 
one or more quarters, rarely the whole udder, is diffusely swollen 
(Fig. 210), painless, at first moderately hard and finally as hard as 
stone. At the same time the supramammary lymph glands exhibit 
a considerable increase in volume and particularly a palpable 
deposition of firm granules and tubercles. 

4.— Pathological Anatomy. 

Upon post-mortem examination of tuberculous animals one 
finds the specific products of the tubercle bacillus in the most 

Fig. 212. 




Bovine kidney with tuberculosis in different stages in the individual renculi. 

a, solitary young tubercle with incipient caseation: b, numerous tubercles of the 

same sort; c, older totally casefied tubercles; d, totally tuberculous renculus. 



varying form and extent. We observe perfectly diaphanous tuber- 
cles just on the borderland of macroscopic visibility, larger tubercles 
with a cloudy, casefied center (Fig. 212, a and b), conglomerations 



614 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



of such tubercles up to the size of a waluut or eveu the fist, and 
larger. The tubercles which lie upon the surface of the mucous 
membrane, after complete caseation, show a partial disintegration 



Fig. 213. 




Fig. 214. 



Intestinal tuberculosis of cattle, a and b, lenticular ulcers ; c, tuberculous 
infiltration; d, part of a tuberculous mesenteric gland. 

which results in the formation of ulcers (Fig. 213). In some organs, 

as, for example, in the lungs, extensive destruction — tuberculous 

abscesses, cavities — may result from such 
ulcers in consequence of a mixed infec- 
tion with purulent bacteria from the air. 
Otherwise, as already mentioned, these 
conditions are not observed in tubercu- 
losis of the domesticated animals (rare 
cases of primary intestinal tuberculosis 
excepted, in which the formation of 
tuberculous abscesses in the mesenteric 
glands and the liver takes place in conse- 
quence of the simultaneous penetration of 
purulent and tubercle bacilli). For the 
rest, the tuberculous ulcers on mucous 
membranes are constantly accompanied 

with a purulent catarrh which may be best observed on the 

mucous membrane of the uterus. 




Serous tuberdulosis of cattle 
(pearl disease). 



TUBERCULOSIS 



615 



Tubercles which do not appear upon the surface of the mucous 
membrane, but which lie deeper in the tissues, preserve their 
original form, although they may be modified in completely cloudy, 
yellow, caseous foci and at last may be totally calcified. 

We must characterize as an anatomically-special form of tuber- 
culosis the so-called pearl disease (serous tuberculosis) which is 



Fig. 215. 



liirr-— -»-C 




Fig. 216. 



G/~ 



— b 




Ofi 



Beef head, a, right, b, left submax- 
illary glands; c, retropharyngeal 
glands. 



i::>e 



Calf "sling.' 
a and a', bronchial glands ; b, 
anterior and posterior media- 
stinal glands ; c, portal glands. 



very frequent in cattle, in contrast with hogs. In this form of 
tuberculosis one observes at first connective tissue outgrowths, 
rather richly supplied with blood, which grow over the parietal and 
visceral layers of the pleura and peritoneum in the form of a velvet- 
like coat. Later cloudy points appear in the connective tissue 



616 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



.outgrowths, and these form caseons foci which may lead to exten- 
sive thickenings or depositions upon the serous membranes. As 
ill ready indicated, the tubercles on the serous membranes are distin- 
guished by the fact that they possess a well-delimited connective 
tissue. Furthermore, they have a tendency to early calcification. 
Finally, it is worthy of consideration that serous tuberculosis, as 
well as tuberculosis of the lymph glands, digestive and respiratory 
apparatus may be apparently primary affections. 

This remarkable phenomenon is to be ascribed to the fact that 
the tubercle bacilli, contrary to the assumption of Baumgarten and 
Tangl, do not regularly produce tuberculous alterations at the point 




Beef mesentery with tuberculous lymphatic glands. 

of entrance after obtaining entrance into the body, but, as shown 
by Bollinger, are able to pass through the epithelium of the mucous 
membrane, and a specific affection may be produced first in the 
neighboring lymph glands. 



Primary and Secondary Foci— The tuberculous foci found in 
the animal body must be classified into primary and secondary, 
according to their origin. For the sanitary judgment of the meat of 
tuberculous animals, it is desirable to give an especially clear 
definition of these terms. 



TUBERCULOSIS 617 

It would seem desirable to include under primary affections, or 
under tuberculous foci which arise primarily, all processes which 
arise immediately at the point of entrance by direct infection from 
the outside world and in the neighborhood of this point, without 
the co-operation of the circulation, but simply by local growth or 
translocation of the bacilli by means of the lymphatic vessels. To 
this class belong, therefore, primary alterations of the mucous 
membrane, tubercles in their vicinity, affections of the correspond- 
ing lymph glands and the tuberculous foci on the serous mem- 
branes which arise by extension of the original infection- 

As a rule, hogs and young cattle are affected by alimentary 
tuberculosis — primary affection of the digestive apparatus and the 
corresponding lymph glands — while, on the other hand, older cattle 
are as regularly affected by inhalation tuberculosis — primary affec- 
tion of the lungs (tuberculous broncho-pneumonia), or of the 
bronchial glands.* The hematogenous embolic foci which arise 
through the agency of the blood circulation must be characterized 
as secondary processes in contrast with the primary ones. These 
lie in the internal organs, at points at which the arteries undergo 
branching into the capillaries (in the interstitial connective tissue). 
They do not, therefore, communicate with the outside world, and 
grow to become large tubercles within the tissue. The embolic 
foci are characterized by the fact that in the majority of cases a 
simple caseation and calcification, and only exceptionally suppura- 
tion, are observed. Moreover, they have a tendency to retain a round 
form even when they have grown to be large conglomerations. 

All organs which are not in direct communication with the out- 
side world contain merely embolic tubercles, while in other organs 
both the processes, viz., primary and embolic, may be observed in 
in co-existence. As we shall see later, the distinction between 
embolic and primary foci in the lungs possesses special importance; 
for it is necessary in rendering a sanitary judgment in individual 
cases to determine whether it is a case of primary tuberculosis, 
broncho-pneumonia, or embolic, pulmonary tuberculosis. 

The anatomical picture of the most important tuberculous 
organic diseases has already been discussed in the section on 
"Organic Diseases," to which reference is here made. 

* Attention may be called in this connection to the fact that for the certain 
recognition of slight primary foci it is necessary to make an incision into the 
retropharyngeal lymph glands in cattle and the laryngeal lymph glands in hogs 
{Fig. 215), as well as the mesenteric (Fig. 217), portal, mediastinal and bronchial 
glands (Fig. 216) in all animals. 



618 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



5. — Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis. 

The number of pathological alterations which may be confused 
with tuberculosis is large, and in this connection attention will be 
called to them briefly, especially since they may be present in an 
animal simultaneously with tuberculosis aud may lead to the 
erroneous conclusion that the distribution of the disease is much 
greater than it actually is. 

The most important alterations from the standpoint of differen- 
tial diagnosis are actinomycotic processes in the organs of the 
mouth cavity and in the lungs, more rarely in the bones and in 
the udder ; echinococci and cysticerci in cases where, in con- 
sequence of a coagulation necrosis or of inflammatory alterations 
of the surrounding membrane, they may have become modified 
into a caseous or plaster-like mass in the lungs, liver, spleen, lymph 
glands and under the serous membranes ; pentastomes in the 
lymph glands of cattle and sheep ; strongylid tubercles in the lungs 
of sheep ; simple purulent processes, for example, purulent catarrh 
of the uterus and abscesses in the lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys ; 
leukemic infiltrations in the liver and kidneys ; neomorphs, especi- 
ally sarcomata in various organs and lymph glands. Finally, in 
cattle, calcifications in the peritoneum (page 286) are of differ- 
ential diagnostic value, as well as the similar processes in the 
presternal connective tissue (page 354) ; and in hogs the peculiar 
alterations of hog cholera in the intestines and in the mesenteric 
glands. 

The possibility of confusion with tuberculous processes 
occurs most frequently in cases of caseated echinococci, calcified 
pentastomes and actinomycotic foci. These alterations, however,, 
quite aside from their peculiarities, may be easily distinguished 
from tuberculosis by a slight magnification on account of their 
characteristic features (lamellate structure of the cuticular echino- 
cocci (Fig. 163), claws in pentastomes (Fig. 168), and fungous weft 
and mycelia in actinomycosis (Figs. 222, 225). 

For the rest, tuberculous processes possess the following 
special characters : (1) They are composed of minute tubercles 
which at first are perfectly gray and transparent, later become 
cloudy in the center and -finally cloudy throughout; (2) the presence 
of minute tubercles around the larger tubercles ; (3) the regular 
sympathetic affection of the corresponding lymph glands in a typi- 
cal sequence : first, swelling, then formation of tubercles in the 



TUBERCULOSIS 619 

glandular tissue, and, finally, caseation and calcification of these 
tubercles.* 

Aids in the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis. — In doubtful cases one 
may make the diagnosis certain by demonstrating the tubercle 
bacilli according to the method of Ziehl-Gabbet (page 609). This 
method is simple and gives good results. It should not be for- 
gotten, however, that a caseous focus may have a tuberculous origin 
without its being possible to demonstrate tubercle bacilli in it by 
bacteriological methods. Nevertheless, such foci are very virulent, 
as one may readily convince himself by inoculating the anterior eye 
chamber, peritoneal cavity, or subcutis of guinea pigs. We do nob 
understand the cause of this negative result from the staining 
method. It has often been assumed that tubercle bacilli are con- 
tained in such foci in the form of spores, but, according to the 
above mentioned investigations of Schmidt-Mulheim, the existence 
of spores of tubercle bacilli is improbable. Inoculation is thus the 
surest means of demonstrating the tuberculous nature of a sus- 
picious process, but even in the guinea pig, which is the most sus- 
ceptible animal to tuberculosis, there is the disadvantage that the 
result of the inoculation can not be known until after several 
weeks, and thereby inoculation becomes valueless in the practice 
of meat inspection. 

Diagnosis of Tuberculosis of Hogs. — As shown by Perroncito, 
tinctorially-demonstrable bacilli are quite frequently absent fronx 
caseated and calcified products in hogs. It would, however, betray 
a great lack of understanding of the nature of an outbreak if one 
should deny the existence of tuberculosis in hogs in cases where 
the bacilli could not be demonstrated in this manner. This posi- 
tion would not be justified until inoculation experiments with the 
suspected material had given negative results. 

It has been shown by Olt that, in tuberculosis of hogs, the 
tubercle bacilli may be readily demonstrated in section preparations 
even from foci in which they were not demonstrable from smear 
preparations. 

As stated on page 345, I found a simple microscopic examina- 
tion of a teased preparation under a magnification of 40 diameters 

* With the exception of tuberculosis, caseation occurs in the lymph glands 
only in consequence of hog cholera and pseudo-tuberculosis in sheep. Moreover, 
casefied cysticerci and echinococci may be present in the lymph glands and 
pentastomes inclosed in caseated and calcified masses. 



620 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



to be a very convenient diagnostic aid. One may thus distinctly 
observe round or oblong giant cells which are especially well devel- 
oped in the tubercles of domesticated animals.* 

This method is well adapted to the examination of suspected 
lymph glands for the presence of macroscopically invisible erup- 
tions of tubercles. While simple, non-specific lymphadenitis 

Fig. 218. 











m&M 



■ ■. . ' ■ . 







Miliary tubercle with numerous giant cells, X 75 diameters. 

exhibits an uniformly transparent tissue when examined in the 
above mentioned manner, one observes, when tubercles are present, 
roundish, cloudy foci with giant cells in the center and epithelioid 
cells around the periphery (Fig. 209). The latter are never wanting, 
while the giant cells may sometimes be absent. 

6. — Local and Geneealized Tubeeculosis. 



We commonly characterize as local diseases those which are 
restricted in an anatomical sense to one organ. In the case of 
tuberculosis, we extend the meaning of the local character, since 



* Giant cells are found also around encapsulated foreign bodies and con- 
stantly in a radial arrangement around Eehinococcus multilocularis, as well as 
in the neighborhood of colonies of actinomyces. These conditions, however, 
may be readily distinguished from tuberculosis by the above mentioned method 
of examination, since in the first case the foreign bodies, and in the other cases 
the echinococci or actinomyces, are demonstrable. 



TUBERCULOSIS G21 

this condition is set in contrast with the dissemination of the dis- 
ease throughout the whole body. The latter condition, however, 
is possible only through the aid of the systemic blood circulation. 
Tuberculous processes, therefore, are characterized as local in the 
broader sense as long as a mere extension or distribution has taken 
place through the lymphatic vessels, and the general circulation is 
not concerned in the dissemination of the tuberculous virus. 

In cases where the systemic blood has become the carrier of 
the virus, we characterize this condition as generalized or general 
tuberculosis (Weigert). This distinction is of the greatest impor- 
tance for meat inspection, since tubercle bacilli gain entrance into 
the musculature, " the meat of traffic," only by the aid of the circu- 
lating blood. The musculature, therefore, can be considered as 
infected and injurious to health only when the organisms of tuber- 
culosis are distributed through the body by means of the blood 
(johne). Tuberculosis of domesticated animals has a pronounced 
tendency to localization. This phenomenon may be explained most 
simply by the assumption of a prompt filtering action of the lymph- 
atic glands as well as by the fact that the tuberculous products in 
domesticated animals are, as a rule, poor in bacilli. As asserted by 
Johne, however, and confirmed by the experiments of Nocard (see 
page 640), individual bacilli which accidentally escape the protective 
filtering action of the lymph glands, become inactive in the circu- 
lating blood. 

The generalization of tuberculosis arises in consequence of the 
penetration of numerous bacilli into the systemic circulation. This 
may occur in veins affected with tuberculous processes or in tuber- 
culous lymphatic glands ; in the latter case, with the aid of the 
thoracic duct or the right tracheal duct. " Flooding " of the blood 
with tubercle bacilli is, according to Weigert, always to be ascribed 
to tuberculous affection of the wall of a blood vessel, or thoracic 
duct. 

General tuberculosis appears in two principal forms : A slight 
infection of the blood leads to the formation of isolated tubercles in 
various organs ; an extensive infection, to the eruption of innumer- 
able tubercles in the majority of the organs. In the first case the 
small tubercles commonly grow to become large tubercles or case- 
ous foci by peripheral expansion, since in such cases infection of the 
blood scarcely appears clinically and, therefore, in and of itself, 
gives no occasion for slaughter (chronic general tuberculosis). In 
the latter case, on the other hand, tubercles are often observed in a 
but slightly altered condition, since this form of generalization, as a 



•622 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

rule, gives cause for slaughter (acute miliary tuberculosis). If a 
slight infection of the systemic blood has preceded the extensive 
invasion of the tubercle bacilli, we have both processes simulta- 
neously. Weigert characterizes this condition as a " transition 
form." 

The Participation of Individual Organs in the Eruption of 
.Tubercles in Cases of Generalized Tuberculosis. — After the entrance of 
tubercle bacilli into the circulating blood, tuberculous alterations 
do not, by any means, occur in all organs in food animals. One 
observes, on the contrary, that certain organs are constantly 
affected, others rarely, and some almost never. This peculiar 
behavior is partly explained by the peculiar connection of the indi- 
vidual organs with the blood circulation and by the rapidity of the 
circulation in them ; in part, also by the presence of specific sub- 
stances ; for example, secretions which influence the development of 
the tubercle bacilli in different ways. For other organs we must 
assume a resisting power in the tissue itself, against tuberculosis. 
Thus, Ziegler characterizes the musculature as " almost immune " 
to tuberculosis. The connection with the blood circulation is of 
considerable importance, since this determines the quantity of the 
bacilli which may find their way into the organ. The lungs, for 
example, in cases where the blood is infected through the agency 
of the thoracic duct, receive blood which contains many more bacilli 
than all the other organs together, for all of the infected blood cir- 
culates through the lungs and thereby large quantities of bacilli 
may be removed from the blood by becoming lodged in the 
pulmonary capillaries. A similar condition may exist in the liver 
if infection is brought about by entrance of the bacilli into a branch 
of the portal vein. In fact, in this case the filtration of the blood 
through the hepatic circulation may restrict the pathological pro- 
cesses to the liver. 

Sequence in the Organs Which Are Affected by General Tuberculosis. 
— The author has already called attention (Berliner Archiv, Yol. 
XIV) to the fact that in generalized tuberculosis of cattle a certain 
sequence of participation of various organs is to be observed. One 
finds uniformly an infection of the lungs and liver ; then follows the 
spleen and kidneys, and then the prescapular and inguinal glands, 
udder, bones and joints. 

When the posterior part of the peritoneum in female animals is 
affected, the uterus is also attacked, almost without exception. 



TUBERCULOSIS 623 

It is a remarkable fact that in generalized tuberculosis of young 
cattle (up to four years of age), the spleen is almost always affected 
and the kidneys are free from tuberculous foci, while in older cattle 
the kidneys, together with the spleen, uniformly show tuberculous 
alterations. 

In hogs, the lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys are similarly 
a-ffected in generalized tuberculosis. Furthermore, affections of the 
bones in hogs, especially the vertebral column, are much more 
frequent than in cattle. Rieck, in 430 cases of general tuberculosis 
in cattle identified at the abattoir in Leipsic, 18.80 to 1891, deter- 
mined the following sequence in the affection of different organs : 
Lungs, 100 per cent.; liver, 83 ; alimentary canal, 73 ; serous mem- 
branes, 57.4 ; kidneys, 52.5 ; meat, 49.3 ; spleen, 18.6 ; udder, 16.7 ; 
bones, 8.8. 

Moreover, Rieck found that 80 per cent, of the cases of tuber- 
culosis were restricted to the lungs or bronchial glands. Several 
organs of one cavity of the body, usually the thoracic cavity, were 
affected in but 3.9 per cent. ; the processes extended beyond the 
thoracic cavity in 1888 in 9.3 per cent, of the cases ; in 1889. in 13.3; 
in 1890, in 11.9; and in 1891, in 19.6 per cent, of the cases. In a 
considerable proportion of the last-named cases, only the lungs 
and mesenteric glands were affected. Tuberculosis of the serous 
membranes was demonstrated in Leipsic in 10.8 per cent, of all 
tuberculous cattle (7.2 of male and 14.8 of female animals). 

7. — Examination of Slaughtered Tuberculous Animals. 

For determining the extent of the disease in animals found to 
be tuberculous, it is desirable to adopt a certain method of inspec- 
tion.* 

The essential features of this method of inspection consist in 
first subjecting to a regular examination the organs and groups of 
lymph glands which may be affected by general infection, and 
which, according to present knowledge, are most important in the 
determination of generalized tuberculosis. For this purpose the 
most important organs are the lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, sexual 
organs, sternum and vertebral column ; also the prescapular, axil- 
lary, popliteal, kneefold and inguinal glands. 

Affections of the bones of the extremities, joints and skeletal 
musculature are always characterized by alterations of the last- 

* With reference to the determination of primary tuberculous alterations in 
slaughtered animals, compare page 617. 



624 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

named lymphatic glands. Affections of the meninges of the brain,, 
the myocardium and the tongue possess only a slight significance, 
since they are seldom present and then only in the most pronounced 
cases of generalization. A quite subordinate role in the determina- 
tion of generalized tuberculosis is played by the affections of the 
serous membranes. In judging the meat of tuberculous cattle, one 
must become accustomed to disregarding completely the affections 
of the pleura and peritoneum. 

It should always be remembered that, as shown by Schmidt- 
Mulheim, peritoneal tuberculosis may pass over in a purely local 
manner to the pleura. Peritoneal tuberculosis, moreover, may be 
associated with a local process in the lungs, either with or with- 
out affection of the pleura and without generalization in cases 
where bronchial slime is swallowed and gives rise to an affection 
of the intestine, or, what is more frequent, to the mesenteric glands 
(auto-infection). Tuberculosis of the serous membranes, particu- 
larly of the peritoneum, comes into consideration only in case of 
affection of the uterus, since in this organ a local invasion of the 
specific process from the peritoneum to the mucous membrane is 
possible and frequent. The greatest extension of tuberculosis 
upon the peritoneum and pleura may, however, occur with the 
complete integrity of the parenchyma of the lungs, liver, spleen, 
etc.,* while, on the other hand, in the typical picture of acute 
miliary tuberculosis, or of chronic general tuberculosis with exten- 
sive alterations, even of the lymph glands, which lie in the skeletal 
musculature, the serous membranes are often only slightly or not 
at all affected. 

A significance equally subordinate with that of the peritoneum 
and pleura and their lymph glands, with regard to the determina- 
tion of the question whether generalized tuberculosis exists, is 
possessed by frequent alterations of the pericardium and epi- 
cardium, trachea and larynx, as well as the lymph glands of the 
head and mesenteries. The first-named alterations are usually 
associated with tuberculous processes in the lungs ; the latter, 
however, may arise in consequence of swallowing tuberculous 
bronchial secretions (auto-infection, see above), or by the direct 
ingestion of the specific virus with the food. I emphasize this 
point for the reason that some importance in judging meat has 
been erroneously ascribed to the affection of the mesenteric glands. 

* For this reason distinction should be made in affections of the organs of 
the thoracic and abdominal cavities between parenchymatous tuberculosis and 
tuberculosis of the serous membranes. 



TUBERCULOSIS 625 

The organs which for the determination of generalized tuber- 
culosis are without significance are to be examined next in order 
and merely for the purpose of determining what parts are to be 
condemned in case of the eventual release of the meat. 

The examination of parts which are important for reaching a 
sanitary judgment on meat should not, as was formerly the general 
custom, proceed from organs known to be diseased, but from those 
which are presumably healthy. However unimportant this point 
may seem, it can not be impressed too strongly upon the meat 
inspector. Through the contamination of a liver by means of a 
knife which was previously used in sectioning a tuberculous focus 
in another organ, as, for example, the lungs, move damage can be 
done in case the liver is released after the determination of its 
intact character than under other conditions by the release of the 
meat of an animal suffering from general tuberculosis. For, bv the 
above mentioned manipulation, the liver may receive a large quan- 
tity of tuberculous virus. It therefore frequently happens that the 
liver is eaten in an incompletely cooked condition. The muscula- 
ture, on the other hand, is quite rarely the seat of tuberculous 
alterations and even its lymphatic glands are only in certain cases 
affected with generalized tuberculosis. 

The practice which was formerly observed in certain locali- 
ties of condemning all internal organs in all animals affected with 
tuberculosis, but which were released for sale, is a radical and, so 
far as human health is concerned, a safe one, but can not be 
approved from a scientific standpoint or from a consideration of 
the material loss to the producers. When it can be determined 
with certainty that the organ is free from pathological alterations, it. 
should never under any circumstances be withheld from sale. If,, 
however, it is contaminated with tuberculous material, this material 
must be removed, but the expert has thereby committed a technical 
error. 

This technical error may be avoided if the examination of 
tuberculous animals begins, not with the organs which are known 
to be tuberculous, but with those which are presumably healthy. 
I purposely emphasize this point since the warning already 
sounded from another source (Deutscher Veterinar Kalender and 
Zschokke), not to contaminate healthy parts by tuberculous 
material, does not, in and of itself, furnish any guide for the mani- 
pulation and may, perhaps, bring it about that the above direc- 
tions are followed by merely washing the contaminated knife 
before making an incision into an apparently healthy organ. More- 



,626 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

over, for reasons already given, all unnecessary cutting of tubercu- 
lous foci should be avoided. Butchers should likewise be expressly 
forbidden to cut into the tuberculous organs of tuberculous ani- 
• nials or to continue the operation of cutting up the animal with 
knives used for this purpose. 

The examination of slaughtered tuberculous animals must pro- 
ceed postero-anteriorly, and, on animals which are hung up, from 
above downward. We examine first of all the " meat " and the 
lymphatic glands which receive the lymph from it, and then the 
internal organs. In making the examination, the following sequence 
may be observed : 

1. Popliteal, kneefold, inguinal, pubic or supramammary lymph 
glands. 

2. In case of an intact peritoneum, the iliac and the other retro- 
peritoneal lymph glands. 

3. Vertebral column, ribs and sternum. 

4. Prescapular and axillary glands. (For the examination of 
the latter, the anterior extremities must be removed. The prescap- 
ular glands, however, may be conveniently reached without 
removing the extremities by a simple incision in front of the 
shoulder joint.) 

5. The udder' in female animals. 

6. The kidneys and renal lymphatic glands. (The latter are 
usually found by making an incision directly over the point where 
the renal artery branches off from the aorta.) 

7. Spleen. 

8. Liver. 

9. Lungs. 

10. The other internal organs, together with the corresponding 
lymph glands. 

The characteristic symptoms of tuberculous affection of the 
above named parts of the body have already been described in the 
chapter on "Organic Diseases." In addition to the discussion 
found there, the following notes may be added with reference to 
the technique of the demonstration of tuberculous processes in 
individual organs. 

The tuberculous affection of the udder is best demonstrated by 
palpation. The healthy udder, although of strikingly large size, 
possesses in all its parts a uniformly, moderately soft character. 
A tuberculous udder, on the other hand, as is well known, in case 
of striking enlargement of one or more quarters, shows a firm, often 



TUBERCULOSIS 627 

stony consistency of the affected parts. One must remove all 
uncertainty concerning the nature of doubtful tubercular thicken- 
ings present in the udder by means of a cross section. It should 
be noted that Bang, in his well known work on tuberculosis of the 
udder, called attention to the absence of softened spots (abscesses) 
in tuberculosis of the udder. In general, abscesses in the udder 
are to be considered as non-tuberculous alterations. Any possible 
doubt, however, may be easily removed by an examination of the 
supramammary lymph glands. 

The kidneys and suprarenal bodies are to be removed from the 
fatty capsule in situ, and after a superficial examination are to be 
cut open by several sections running toward the renal pelvis. 
Since, however, palpation as well as sectioning of the kidneys can 
not be performed in such a satisfactory manner that a reliable con- 
clusion can be drawn upon this basis, for the absence of tuberculous 
foci, the aid of an examination of the lymph glands is indispensable 
for reaching a diagnosis of the condition of the kidneys. 

The tissue of the spleen should be examined by making 
numerous parallel longitudinal sections. Moreover, even small 
tubercles in the spleen may be demonstrated by palpation. 

In case of the liver it must be insisted upon that the portal 
lymph glands shall in no case be removed before a veterinary 
inspection is made, for frequently these glands exhibit a much more 
strikingly diseased condition than the tissue of the liver. 

Similar conditions are present in case of the bronchial glands 
and the lungs. Tuberculous alterations in the latter may be of two 
sorts : There are either small or large cavities (primary pulmonary 
tuberculosis) or round small and large tubercles (embolic pulmonary 
tuberculosis). The cavities have their seat especially at the base 
and apex, as well as in the lower border of the lungs. The embolic 
foci, on the other hand, are uniformly distributed in the interlobu- 
lar tissue. 

When inspection is made according to the foregoing directions, 
the inspector can, as a rule, decide without difficulty whether in 
a particular case tuberculosis is local or generalized. The internal 
organs, particularly the lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys, as well as 
the intermuscular lymph glands, present a more favorable nutrient 
medium for tubercle bacilli than the meat. The most recent alter- 
ations, incipient tubercles, are therefore much more easily and 
certainly demonstrated in the internal organs and lymph glands 
than in the various joints and in the marrow of the bones, quite 
aside from the fact that the dissection of the meat for the purpose 



G28 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



of inspection is quite limited. The alterations in the organs, there- 
fore, together with those which may be demonstrated in the skeleton, 
musculature and intermuscular lymph glands, must be considered 
as final criteria for deciding the question whether the case is one of. 



Fig. 219 a. 



Fig. 219 b. 





Half of beef, seen from the outside. 
a, popliteal glands; b, kneefold 
glands; c, prescapular glands. 



Half of beef, seen from the inside, a, siipei 1 - 
ficial inguinal glands ; b, deep inguinal 
glands (of variable size and not always pre- 
sent); c, internal iliac glands; d. Lumbar 
glands; e, renal glands: /, lymphatic glands 
of the inferior thoracic wall : g, glands of 
the superior thoracic wall; h, lower cervical 
glands. 



local or generalized tuberculosis. By means of the above described 
examination the organic alterations may be most perfectly deter- 
mined, and, when taken together, give positive evidence on the 
question whether tubercle bacilli have gained entrance into th& 



TUBERCULOSIS 



629 



general circulation or have distributed themselves beyond the point 
of entrance into the neighboring organs, or not. At the same time, 



Fig. 219 c. 




Position of the most important lymphatic glands after removal of the retroperitoneal 
fat tissue, a, lymphatic glands above the hock ; b, popliteal glands ; c, super- 
ficial inguinal glands; d, kneefold glands; e and /, internal iliac glands; g, 
lymphatic glands of the lower thoracic walls; h, lower cervical glands ; i, upper 
cervical glands; k, submaxillary glands. 

it may be determined by the above described method of examination 
what parts are to be destroyed in case the meat is released. 



8. — Sanitary Judgment on Tuberculosis. 
(a) Tuberculous Organs. 

It must be assumed that tuberculosis may be transmitted to 
man by the consumption of tuberculous organs. For, tuberculosis 
of man and animals is produced by a bacillus which, in regard to its 



630 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

form, stainability, growth, and transmissibility to small experi- 
mental animals, exhibits no essential differences. Furthermore, it is 
possible in a proportion of the cases, if not always, to transmit 
human tuberculosis to cattle, hogs and sheep. Finally, a number 
of cases is known in which tuberculosis of domesticated animals 
has been transmitted to man (skin infection from handling tubercu- 
lous material and alimentary tuberculosis after eating the milk of 
cows affected with tuberculosis of the u elder). 

By means of experiments on animals it has been shown that 
the tubercle bacilli introduced in food may be taken np b} r the 
lymphatic apparatus of the gums and pharyngeal cavity, and that 
they are also capable of passing through the stomach and may pro- 
duce specific alterations in the intestines or mesenteric glands. A 
necessary condition, however, is that the tubercle bacilli shall be 
introduced in a certain quantity (see page 611). 

Recently the question of the transmissibility of tuberculosis of 
domesticated animals to man has been thrown into doubt by Robert 
Koch on the basis of experiments which he carried out in coopera- 
tion with Schiitz. In these experiments it was found impossible, 
by any method of inoculating human tuberculosis, to render cattle, 
nineteen in number, tuberculous, while, on the contrary, cattle 
which were inoculated with tuberculous material from other cattle 
became seriously affected and part of them died. 

Before the experiments of Koch and Schiitz, Piitz, Theobald 
Smith, Frothingham, Dinwiddie and Gaiser had demonstrated the 
difficulty of transmitting human tuberculosis to cattle ; Koch and 
Schiitz, however, conducted their experiments, in so far as they 
operated with pure cultures, exclusively with one culture. This is 
of the greatest significance in judging the results, as was shown by 
the experiments of Thomassen. He infected four cattle with four 
cultures of tubercle bacilli of various human origins and produced 
positive results in two cases. Furthermore, Karlinski succeeded 
in infecting cattle with human tuberculosis in ten cases during 
twenty-five experiments. Similarly, Bollinger, Kitt, Frothingham, 
Crookshank, Svennson, Delepin^, Arloing, Krebbs and Rievel, as 
well as de Jong, obtained positive results in the transmission of 
human tuberculosis to calves. We may, therefore, agree with 
Thomassen when he states that it is difficult but not impossible to 
transmit human tuberculosis to cattle. 

In the case of hogs and sheep, even Koch and Schiitz suc- 
ceeded in part of their experiments in producing tuberculosis, if 
only of a local character, in the experimental animals by means of 



TUBERCULOSIS 631 

tuberculous material of human origin. In hogs and sheep also, 
tuberculous material of bovine origin was found to be much more 
infectious than that of human origin. 

The rarity of primary intestinal tuberculosis in man seems to 
speak for the soundness of Koch's assumption. The question 
should not be decided by this evidence, but rather by the occur- 
rence of primary tuberculous alterations in the laryngeal, cervical 
and mesenteric glands, which affections appear much move fre- 
quently after the ingestion of tubercle bacilli with the food than 
does a tuberculous affection of the intestinal mucous membrane. 
Heller in Kiel recently found that in nearly one-half of the cases of 
tuberculosis of children there was an affection of the mesenteric 
glands. Moreover, Dr. Still, working on material obtained from 
autopsies in a London hospital for children, found 29.1 per cent, 
and Dr. Shenuan in Edinburgh found primary tuberculosis in 28.5 
per cent, of the cases of tuberculosis in children. 

Negative results in the transmission of a given race of tuber- 
culous cultures of bovine origin to man, as reported by Baum- 
garten, are not sufficient, according to the results of the experi- 
ments by Thomassen and Karlinski, to prove the non-transmissi- 
bility to man of bovine tuberculosis. 

In favor of the possibility of the transmissibility of bovine 
tuberculosis to man we have the case of Moses, that of Priester, 
several cases of skin tuberculosis of animal origin and cases of 
alimentary tuberculosis which have been observed in man after 
drinking tuberculous milk. The veterinarian, Moses, of a healthy 
family, received in the summer of 1885, a wound on the left thumb 
while making a post-mortem examination of a tuberculous cow. 
The wound healed without suppuration, although the point of the 
knife probably penetrated into the joint. After six mouths, how- 
ever, a so-called skin tubercle developed on the cicatrix and the 
joint became loose. In the autumn of 1886 acute catarrh appeared, 
and thereupon a chronic hoarseness, and, in January, 1887, death 
resulted (Pfeiffer). Priester reported a case, observed in a surgi- 
cal clinic in Kiel, of skin tuberculosis in a man who for the pur- 
pose of removing a tattooing of the skin pricked the tattoo marks 
and rubbed milk into the punctures. This operation was repeated 
several times. Skin tuberculosis developed in the punctures which 
were rubbed with milk on a certain day. 

Concerning skin tuberculosis in veterinarians and butchers, 
which may be ascribed to infection with bovine tuberculosis, wo 
have the communications of Tscherniug, Eavenel, Johne, Muller in 



(>o2 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

Erfurt, Sick and the author (compare Zeit. f. Fleisch u. Milchhyg. r 
Vol. II., No. 12). In this connection it shotild be remembered that 
skin tuberculosis can be induced artificially only with some diffi- 
culty. Chanveau did not succeed in infecting calves by super- 
ficial scarification of the skin and subsequent rubbing-in of the 
tuberculous material. Similarly, Bollinger obtained negative 
results by cutaneous inoculation of guinea pigs. 

With regard to the transmissibility of tuberculosis by means 
of the milk of tuberculous cows, particularly such as are affected 
with mammary tuberculosis, the following observations may suffice : 
According to a report of Ollivier in the Academy of Medicine at 
Paris, twelve girls in a Girls' Academy contracted tuberculosis. Of 
this number, five died. The fact that the infected and dead girls 
came from healthy parents and showed principally the symptoms 
of intestinal tuberculosis awakened the suspicion of alimentary 
infection, and this suspicion was fully confirmed by the slaughter of 
a cow which for years had furnished the milk for the Academy.* 
The cow was found to be infected with extensive tuberculous 
processes of the internal organs and udder. t 

All organs affected with tuberculosis must, therefore, be 
excluded from the market as dangerous food material. In this 
connection, it should be observed that also those organs are to be 
considered tuberculous in which we find merely an affection of the 
lymph glands, for although it is known that tubercle bacilli possess 
the power of penetrating intact epithelia and producing alterations 
in the neighboring lymph glands, nevertheless we do not know with 
certainty, in individual cases, that no tubercles are actually found 
in the organs. The organs can not be dissected to such an extent 
that all macroscopically-visible tubercles in them may be demon- 
strated. Moreover, even if this were true, the foci which stand on 
the borderland of macroscopic visibility might escape our atten- 
tion.^: For this reason also, as frequently mentioned, all lymphatic 

* This one case, mentioned incidentally, should furnish sufficient reason for 
all abattoir directors allowing the milk of cows maintained at abattoirs, a very- 
large percentage of which are found to be tuberculous, and often some with 
mammary tuberculosis, to be admitted to the market only after previous boiling 
(compare Ostertag, Zeit. f. Fleisch u. Milchhyg., Vol. V.). 

f Koch has recently stated that Ollivier subsequently corrected his report 
and asserted that the girls did not receive the milk of the tuberculous cow. — 
Translator. 

X Rieck emphasizes the fact that in the frequently occurring affection of the 
bronchial glands there are often only isolated minute peribronchial foci to be 
found, which are distinguished from the normal parenchyma by their darker color. 



TUBERCULOSIS 633 

glands at the natural openings (alimentary and respiratory tracts) 
in every food animal should be carefully examined for the presence 
of tubercles, by palpation and incision. 

The requirement is evidently well based that even in the case 
of the presence of isolated foci in a given organ, the whole organ is 
always to be considered as dangerous to health. For, qnite aside 
from the fact that the tubercle bacilli quite regularly make their 
way from isolated foci to neighboring lymphatic glands and thus pass 
through the apparently healthy parts of the organ, we have no means 
of knowing whether or not similar foci have developed at a greater 
or less distance from the visible tubercles. A tuberculous organ 
can not, like one which is infested" with animal parasites, be ren- 
dered innocuous by removing the affected parts.* 

On account of the danger to health from eating tuberculous 
organs, they should be carefully removed with all their appendices 
and rendered innocuous ; especially the corresponding lymph glands 
of such an organ must in each case be excluded from market alone: 
with this organ. I emphasize this fact, since this requirement of 
the sanitary police is frequently violated. It sometimes happens 
that the lobes of the lungs are removed, but not the bronchial 
glands, trachea, or larynx ; and also that the peritoneum or pleura 
is removed, but not the groups of lymphatic glands which belong 
to these structures. It also occurs that the mesenteric glands 
are condemned, but not the corresponding portion of the intes- 
tine, etc. (compare page 182, ff.). 

Procedure in Cases of Local Affection of the Pleura and Peritoneum. 
— In local affection of the pleura and peritoneum, it is the common 
practice merely to remove these membranes with the lymphatic 
glands which lie upon them (Fig. 219). Objection may be raised to 
this practice that by the careless dissection of the membranes in 
question tuberculous material may remain on the thoracic or 
abdominal walls. Hartenstein, therefore, rightly demands that the 
removal of the tuberculous pleura and peritoneum shall be. per- 
formed only by the meat inspector himself or by some other reliable 
official. Still better, however, is the suggestion of the same author 

* A quite formidable danger lies in a procedure which I have unfortunately 
observed in the case of insufficiently-trained empirical meat inspectors. Such 
persons content themselves with the removal of the more extensively altered 
parts, or with cutting out superficial foci, and admit the rest of the organ to 
market without restriction. These improperly instructed officials do not know 
that they are thereby in each individual case laying themselves liable to punish- 
ment (Sees. 12 and 14 of the Food Law). 



634 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

that in ease of pleural tuberculosis the whole thoracic wall (ribs, 
intercostal muscles and pleura) be removed, and that in peritoneal 
tuberculosis, the whole abdominal wall, or the peritoneum, together 
with the lymphatic glands and abdominal muscles which lie imme- 
diately under it, should be removed. 

(I>) Judgment of the Meat of Tuberculous Animals. 

The careful elimination of organs showing tuberculous altera- 
tions is the most important function of the sanitary police with 
regard to tuberculosis of food animals. Tuberculous organs con- 
stitute the chief danger to human beings. In comparison with it 
the danger from the consumption of the meat of tuberculous animals 
is slight. 

The question whether and to what extent the meat of tubercu- 
lous animals possesses harmful properties has given rise to more 
investigations and experiments than any other problem of hygiene. 
The modifications of the prevailing views concerning this question 
during the pre-Kochian epoch may be passed over, since they 
possess rather a historical interest. At the present time the stand- 
point with regard to the mooted question may be described as. 
follows : 

The belief that the meat of tuberculous animals is, as a rule„ 
harmless and that only in exceptional cases does it possess harmful 
properties must be looked upon as scientifically well founded. 

It is one of Johne's great merits that he introduced clear con- 
ceptions concerning the harmfulness of the meat of tuberculous 
animals in the place of the previously prevailing vague and ill- 
defined ones. Johne established the proposition that " the gist of 
the question regarding the point of time from which the meat of 
tuberculous animals is to be considered as infected and therefore 
infectious is not, as maintained by Gerlach, determined by the 
affection of the lymph glands of the neighboring organs, but simply^ 
by the demonstration of generalized tuberculosis. This alone 
furnishes positive proof of the fact that the virus has entered into 
the systemic circulation and has infected the meat. Not until this 
point of time, therefore, are we justified in unconditionally exclud- 
ing from the market a given piece of meat." Thus formulated, this 
principle constitutes a great stride in advance as contrasted with 
the general, meaningless phrases which formerly passed current 
regarding the judgment of the meat of tuberculous animals and 
which are, unfortunately, still to be found in some regulations con- 
cerning meat inspection. 



TUBERCULOSIS 635 

The conception of the generalization of tuberculosis which 
Weigert introduced into pathological anatomy has become an axiom 
in meat inspection since Johne. At present, the view is generally 
entertained that in undoubted cases of local tuberculosis the meat 
is harmless, while in generalized cases it is harmful. In cases 
intermediate between the local and generalized forms, according to 
the rules which serve for the guidance of sanitary police, viz., to 
assume in dubio the less favorable condition, the meat is to be sus- 
pected of possessing harmful properties and is to be treated 
accordingly. 

The first point, the assumption of the harmlessness of meat in 
cases of undoubted local tuberculosis, will probably remain for all 
time as an immutable dogma of meat inspection. The second propo- 
sition, on the other hand, viz., that the generalization of tuberculosis 
is always associated with a harmful property of meat, can no longer 
be maintained. Only under certain conditions and not uniformly 
does the generalization of tuberculosis produce a harmful property 
in the meat. 



9. — Experiments Concerning the Virulence op the Meat op ; 
Tuberculous Animals. 

Nocard made inoculations with the muscle serum of twenty-one 
cows which were affected with generalized tuberculosis. In only 
one case, however, was one of the four guinea pigs infected. Each 
experimental animal received 1 cc. of fresh muscle serum in the 
body cavity. In this connection, however, it should be remembered, 
as stated by Nocard, that intraperitoneal infection is by no means 
synonymous with the possibility of an infection through the 
alimentary tract. All experiments by the last-named method of 
inoculation gave negative results. Even the meat of the cow, the 
muscle serum from which produced an infection in an inoculated 
guinea pig, was eaten by four cats without any ill effects, although 
each cat received over 400 gm. Galtier, who had previously studied 
the question of the virulence of the meat of tuberculous animals, 
on the basis of later experiments (1891-189S) drew the same con- 
clusions that he had previously drawn, namely, that the muscle 
serum of tuberculous animals may contain tubercle bacilli, but that,, 
as a rule, such is not the case. In inoculating the muscle serum 
of fifteen tuberculous animals in quantities of from 4 to 12 cc.,- 
Galtier was able to transmit the disease to experimental animals 



636 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

in only two cases. la one case, 4 cc. was inoculated into the 
experimental animal without any reaction, while 12 cc. produced 
tuberculosis. 

In order to obtain information concerning the danger of eating 
raw meat, Galtier fed the meat of tuberculous cattle to cats, dogs, 
calves and hogs — as much as they would eat. In no case, however, 
was he able to produce tuberculosis in these animals. This result 
is particularly remarkable, since among the samples of meat which 
were fed two were found the serum from which produced pro- 
nounced cases of tuberculosis in rabbits after subcutaneous 
inoculation. Galtier concludes from these experiments that the 
consumption of the meat of tuberculous cattle is not especially 
dangerous, and he holds to his previously expressed opinion 
that in slight cases of tuberculosis the destruction of the dis- 
eased organs is sufficient, while the meat may be admitted to the 
market. 

Yan der Sluys fed ten young pigs with the raw meat of animals 
which were affected with acute generalized tuberculosis. For the 
purpose of favoring infection, bone splinters were mixed with the 
meat. Among the ten experimental pigs, three, or 30 per cent., 
became infected with alimentary tuberculosis. Forster obtained 
positive results in three out of seven experiments in feeding finely 
minced meat of highly tuberculous animals. 

Bang attempted to transmit tuberculosis by means of the 
blood of badly affected cows. He obtained positive results, how- 
ever, in only two out of 21 experiments. According to the view 
of this noted Danish investigator, there is no danger from eating 
the meat so long as tuberculosis is plainly localized. Bang states 
that his experiments demonstrated that the muscle serum and 
muscle tissue are unfavorable media for the multiplication of 
tubercle bacilli. Bollinger had his pupil, Hagemann, inoculate 
guinea pigs with the blood of six tuberculous cows. In these 
experiments it was found that the blood of one cow which showed 
extensive tuberculosis was virulent. 

Under Bollinger's direction, Kastner instituted experiments 
concerning the infectiousness of the meat of tuberculous animals. 
In the first series of experiments he prepared muscle serum from 
12 animals affected with tuberculosis in different degrees, and 
inoculated 16 guinea pigs intraperitoneally with this material. All 
experiments gave negative results. 

This result was surprising, since Bollinger's pupil, Steinheil, 
had found the muscle serum of human beings, dead of phthisis, to 



TUBERCULOSIS 637 

"bo uniformly infectious. Kastner's cattle, however, were affected 
with tuberculosis to such a slight extent that their meat could be 
admitted to the market. In a second series of experiments, 
Kastner operated with the muscle serum of cattle the meat of 
which, with one exception, was condemned on account of extensive 
tuberculosis in nearly all the organs. In the animals in question 
the tubercles in the lungs and other organs were casefied as in 
man and did not, as is usually the case in cattle, become calcified. 
In all, twelve experiments were instituted with the meat of 
seven animals. In only two cases was a negative result obtained 
(among them the slight case mentioned as an exception) ; in all 
the other cases, the muscle serum showed itself to be virulent in 
intraperitoneal inoculation of guinea pigs. 

According to these recent experiments the chief attention is 
to be directed to the pathologico-anatomical conditions in rendering 
a judgment on the danger of infection. "As shown by the first 
series of experiments, a complete calcification of the tuberculous 
processes may indicate only a slight danger of infection. If, on 
the other hand, casefied masses are found from which the virus 
may escape, the danger of infection must be recognized. It is 
accordingly the function of meat inspection to render a judgment 
on this point, and that this is possible by a conscientious fulfil- 
ment of duty, is completely proved by the work of the sanitary 
authorities of the Munich abattoir and stockyard. For I was 
unable to obtain a positive result from a single case of the meat 
admitted to the market, while the condemned meat proved to be 
infectious in all cases except one " (Kastner).* 

Under the term calcification, Kastner understood dry caseo- 
calcareous, often mortar-like metamorphoses. Under caseation, on 



* That it would be quite irrational, on the basis of Kastner's highly inter- 
esting experiments, to conclude upon the necessity of a rigorous procedure of 
the sanitary police against tuberculosis of cattle is proved by the statistics of 
condemnations from meat inspection in Munich, set up as a model by Kastner. 
Kastner instituted his experiments in 1890 with material which had been con- 
demned by the Munich meat inspectors. In Munich in 1890 the following num- 
bers of animals were absolutely excluded from market on account of tubercu- 
losis : 2 steers, 27 cowa and 2 young cattle out of 23,390 steers, 21,540 cows, 
7,511 bulls and 8,296 young cattle slaughtered. Among the cattle slaughtered, 
394 steers, 1,352 cows, G7 bulls and 41 young cattle — a total of 1,854 animals — 
were tuberculous, and of this number only 41 had to be excluded from the market. 
This is a minimum proportion, particularly if we consider the fact that the 
percentage of tuberculous animals in Munich was very low ; viz., 3 per cent, of 
all animals slaughtered, for in this 3 per cent, numerous cases of primary tuber- 
culosis of the lymphatic glands were not included. 



638 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

the other hand, which renders the meat evidently dangerous, he 
understood purulent caseous disintegration.* 

The author instituted inoculation experiments in 18 guinea 
pigs with what had the microscopic appearances of being healthy 
pieces of muscle, lymph glands and spleen from cattle which were 
affected with dry caseous foci in the mesenteric glands, lungs, liver 
and spleen. One animal soon died of peritonitis. All other ani- 
mals were found to be non-tuberculous after from 6 to 8 weeks. 

Perroncito, during the years 1889-1891, conducted experiments 
concerning the virulence of the meat of tuberculous cattle on a 
large number of guinea pigs, rabbits and hogs, as well as on two 
cattle. These experiments, however, like those already mentioned 
by the same author in 1874 and 1875, had a uniformly negative 
result. In his experiments Perroncito used the meat of cattle 
which had been condemned in the abattoir at Turin on account of 
"a considerable extension of the disease." Part of the meat was 
fed, and from another part muscle serum was expressed and used 
in subcutaneous and intraperitoneal inoculations. 

In three series of experiments with young pigs, Perroncito fed 
meat from tuberculous animals without producing infection in the 
pigs. In more than 200 rabbits and as many guinea pigs the 
muscle serum was injected under the skin or into the body cavity 
without producing a trace of tuberculosis observable when the ani- 
mals were slaughtered after \\ months or longer. The result from 
subcutaneous injection of muscle serum in the two cattle was like- 
wise negative. 

* These distinctions should be borne well in mind. Dry caseation with a 
strong tendency to calcification is very frequent in tuberculosis of domesticated 
animals. It~ is the usual case in alimentary tuberculosis and is, therefore, met 
with in a great majority of tuberculous calves and hogs. Purulent disintegra- 
tion forms the exception. It takes place most frequently in primary bronchial 
pneumonia of cattle, sheep, old cows and steers, in. which it may become very 
extensive under certain conditions. 

The author has previously had opportunity to explain that in cattle those 
forms of tuberculosis are undoubtedly most dangerous, in so far as the meat is 
concerned, in which softened tuberculous foci are found in the organs (mixed 
infection of the tubercle bacilli with staphylococci and purulent streptococci). 
For, with the presence of extensive tuberculous abscesses at the natural 
entrances to the body, one usually finds embolic foci of very different age in the 
spleen and in the kidneys, and very frequently, moreover, an emaciation as evi- 
dence of the fact that the bacteria themselves or their metabolic products have 
constantly had opportunity to enter into the blood circulation. It may be inci- 
dentally mentioned in this connection that the histolytic property of pyogenic 
bacteria must be considered responsible for this varying condition of the dry 
caseous and softened tuberculous foci. 



TUBEECULOSIS 639 

Four young pigs of Italian breed, six months old, were fed 
for four months on the meat of tuberculous cattle and remained 
healthy. Moreover, a litter of twelve pigs, two months old, 
were fed for five months on such meat without becoming in- 
fected. 

The majority of the above described experiments were unfortu- 
nately made without an accurate determination of the extension and 
special condition of the process in the animals the musculature of 
"which was used for inoculation. Data on these points would have 
greatly increased the value of the experiments. These experiments, 
liowever, in connection with those of Kastner, Bang and the author, 
justify the conclusion that the meat and muscle serum of tubercu- 
lous animals, as a rule, contain no bacilli or not enough to produce 
tuberculosis in the experimental animals. Only in acute stages of 
tuberculosis and in cases of a purulent softening of the tuberculous 
foci is the meat infectious. In this connection, however, it should 
"be remembered that, even presupposing the same susceptibility to 
tuberculosis in man as in experimental animals, the quantity of the 
tubercle bacilli which produces tuberculosis in intraperitoneal 
inoculation is not sufficient to cause infection when administered by 
way of the alimentary canal (page 611). A positive result from 
inoculation does not, therefore, indicate an injurious property of the 
meat when eaten. 

Accordingly, it requires no further argument to disprove the 
view which was once entertained in all seriousness by an expert on 
the occasion of a litigation concerning tuberculosis, viz., that a 
single tubercle bacillus is sufficient to injure human health when 
ingested with the food. A certain quantity of bacilli are required 
in order to exercise an injurious effect. For the rest, the experience 
of the pathological anatomists show in the most unambiguous manner 
that the meat of tuberculous animals plays only an inconspicuous 
role in the etiology of human tuberculosis. Baumgarten states on 
the basis of his experience that, despite the strong tendency of the 
digestive tract toward tuberculous affection, " no great significance 
for the origin of human tuberculosis can be ascribed " to this 
method of infection. " We are forced to accept this view by the 
fact that primary tuberculosis of the digestive tract in man is, on 
the whole, quite a rare occurrence." Bollinger also emphasizes the 
fact that alimentary tuberculosis in man is much more frequently 
secondary than primary. Primary tuberculosis of the intestine was 
observed chiefly in young individuals and was to be ascribed mainly 
to eating raw milk. 



640 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

Moreover, when we remember that, under unregulated or badly 
regulated meat inspection, yearly, nay, daily, immense quantities of 
tuberculous organs are placed upon the market and are eaten — I 
would call attention merely to the frequency of pulmonary tubercu- 
losis, to which, unfortunately, proper attention is not yet given 
everywhere — and that this is undoubtedly infectious material, only 
a very slightly dangerous property for human health can be 
assumed for the meat of tuberculous animals, in view of the rare 
occurrence of primary intestinal tuberculosis in adult human beings 
and the great extent of tuberculosis among cattle* 

Merely for the sake of completeness, it should be stated that 
the Tuberculosis Congresses in Paris in 1885 and 1891 voted for 
the absolute exclusion from the market of the meat of all tubercu- 
lous animals. Outside of the Tuberculosis Congresses, this, from a 
scientific standpoint, absolutely unwarranted requirement found no 
advocates. The same proposition was also brought before the 
Seventh International Congress for Hygiene in London and was 
unanimously rejected. Later Tuberculosis Congresses (1893, 1898) 
fortunately took a more rational view of the question, since they 
considered the sale of the meat of animals affected with localized 
tuberculosis as admissible without qualification and that of animals 
affected with generalized tuberculosis as admissible after previous 
sterilization. 

Of considerable importance for the judgment of the meat of 
tuberculous animals is the fact, determined by Nocard, that the ! 
blood possesses properties by means of which it soon frees itself of j 
tubercle bacilli which may be found in it. Nocard demonstrated, 
that after the intravenous injection of tubercle bacilli the blood j 



*The Bavarian Minister of State on August 11, 1879, ordered the collection 
of statistics concerning the distribution of tuberculosis among the Bavarian pop- 
ulation, with especial reference to the connection between tuberculosis of man 
and that of cattle. During the investigation it was found , as stated by Bollinger, j 
that a large number of isolated observations were collected which indicated the 
harmless character of the meat of tuberculous animals. In the village of 
Reiterswiesen, for example, with 452 inhabitants, almost exclusively the meat of 
tuberculous animals was consumed. Nevertheless, tuberculosis occurs there very ! 
rarely and the families which are the almost exclusive consumers of the meat of , 
tuberculous animals were all found to be free from tuberculosis. 

Bauwerker reports that a shoemaker lived in Alsenz who, together with his 
whole numerous family, had for years lived almost entirely upon the meat of 
tuberculous cattle. " The meat, which was often without any trace of fat, was 
salted, boiled and eaten." Tuberculosis was never observed in the family. 
Bollinger and Bauwerker called attention to the fact that in Bavaria meat is 
eaten only after being cooked. 



TEBERCULOSIS 



641 



loses its infectiousness within four, five, or, at most, six days 
(destruction and excretion of the bacilli). 

It is therefore evident that the meat of tuberculous animals may 
be quite harmless in spite of a previous generalization of tubercu- 
losis. The tubercle bacilli are either excreted from the body or are 
destroyed by a specific action of the blood. In the generalization 



Fig. 220. 




>«r 



Tuberculosis of the dorsal vertebrae in a hog. a, caseous focus; b, deposition of lime 
in the caseous focus; c, bony bands and islands on the border of the caseous 
focus ; d, section of a vertebra after removal of the tuberculous products. 



of tuberculosis and the entrance of the tubercle bacilli into the 
blood, the musculature escapes infection for the reason that it is 
almost immune to tuberculosis. Even in cases of extensive flooding 
of the blood with bacilli, during which all the internal organs appear 
to be infected with tubercle bacilli, and in the so-called acute miliary 
tuberculosis, the musculature is usually free from tuberculous alter- 
ations. 



642 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

Nevertheless, the meat of tuberculous animals, even after the 
process of generalization has ended, can not be unconditionally 
admitted to the market; for, while the musculature, "the chief con- 
stituent of the meat of traffic," is, as a rule, free from tuberculous 
alterations, the other elements of the meat, lymph vessels, bones 
and lymphatic glands in the meat, may be tuberculous. In such 
cases the diseased meat of tuberculous animals is to be considered, 
from a sanitary police standpoint, in the same category with tuber- 
culous organs. 

For the determination of such alterations in the meat, we now 
possess valuable criteria in the intermuscular lymphatic glands, 
particularly in the prescapular, axillary, popliteal, inguinal, knee- 
fold and iliac glands, as well as in the glands which lie underneath 
the spinal column. If there are tuberculous foci present in the 
meat, these lymphatic glands are altered. In case of localized 
tuberculosis, on the other hand, these glands, with the exception of 
the lumbar glands, which may be affected also in localized peritoneal 
tuberculosis, are intact. As a rule, however, it is an easy matter, 
from the absence or presence of embolic foci in organs which are 
accessible only through the blood circulation, to determine the 
general nature of this affection. For the rest, the less favorable 
condition is to be assumed. Tuberculous processes on the spinal 
column and sternum may be immediately recognized in animals 
which are cut up according to the butchers' ordinary method, since 
in such portions the median plane of these bones is exposed (Fig. 
220). In the case of the ribs, careful attention should be given to 
thickenings. Alterations of the bones of the extremities manifest 
themselves uniformly by conspicuous alterations of the lymphatic 
glands in the shoulder and pelvis. Attention should also be called 
in this connection to the fact that costal tuberculosis is always an 
expression of generalization. It never arises in a local manner by 
extension of alterations in the pleura. 

Doubt concerning the judgment of the meat of an animal in 
which the process of generalization has taken place (tuberculosis of 
the lungs, liver, spleen, or kidneys) can arise only in cases in which 
the tubercles in the parenchymatous tissues are very small. In 
such cases it may not be possible, by the ordinary macroscopic 
inspection, to demonstrate such small foci in the intermuscular 
lymphatic glands, the inspection of which is, for the above men- 
tioned reasons, of greatest importance. It should be remembered, 
however, that in the lymphatic glands the tubercles grow much 
more rapidly and become visible sooner than in the parenchyma of 



TUBERCULOSIS 643 

the organs. For example, in cases where the foci in the spleen are 
not quite the size of hemp seed, one finds in the prescapular glands, 
in consequence of an infection of the blood, quite conspicuous 
tubercles which are much larger than hemp seed. In order, how- 
ever, to proceed with certainty, it is necessary in the presence of 
embolic tubercles in the spleen or kidneys of the size of hemp seed, 
not to consider the macroscopic inspection of the lymph glands 
lying in the musculature as sufficient, but to base final judgment 
upon the microscopic inspection of the lymph glands by means of 
teased preparations. 

10. — Criteria Furnished by Experiments Concerning the Harmful 
or Harmless Character oe the Meat op Tuberculous 

Animals. 

According to the foregoing discussion, we must consider the 
meat of tuberculous animals which are infected with undoubted 
localized tuberculosis as harmless. To this category belong all 
cases of localized tuberculosis in which the tuberculous processes 
possess a purely caseous or calcareous character and are not 
purulent. We must render similar judgment concerning all healed 
cases of typical generalization restricted to the internal organs. 

As injurious to health, on the other hand, we must characterize 
the meat of all cases of generalization with tuberculous alterations 
in the musculature, bones, joints and lymphatic glands of the 
muscles, and also all cases of fresh generalization with tumefaction 
of the spleen and all the lymphatic glands. 

We must consider the meat as probably possessed of a harmful 
character to a high degree, and must treat it in the same manner as 
that which has been shown to be harmful in cases where the local 
character of the tuberculous process is doubtful. This is especially 
the case in the formation of extensive cavities in the lungs, mesen- 
teric glands, or liver, since, in addition to the experiments of 
Kastner, experience teaches that in the presence of tuberculous 
cavities frequent outbreaks of tubercle bacilli into the blood take 
place, a phenomenon which is readily recognized from the fact that 
in such cases, in contrast with other cases, foci of varying size and, 
therefore, to be considered of varying age, usually occur in the 
spleen or kidneys. 

The meat of emaciated tuberculous animals is to be judged as 
highly unfit for food, without regard to the tuberculous processes. 



6M INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

The distinction, however, between emaciation and poorness should 
be kept in mind. 

11. — Boiling and Sterilization of the Meat of Tuberculous 

Animals. 

At the Sixteenth Session of the German Association for Public 
Sanitation, Bollinger called attention to the possibility of admitting 
to the market in a cooked condition the meat from cases of gener- 
alized tuberculosis. At the same time Hertwig in Berlin instituted 
experiments to determine to what extent we are in a position to 
destroy with certainty the tubercle bacilli present in the meat, by 
boiling or some other process. The results of these experiments, 
which will receive special consideration in an appendix, led to the 
recommendation of a steam sterilizing process for rendering harm- 
less the meat of tuberculous animals. By means of this process it 
is possible in a comparatively short time to heat the meat uniformly, 
that is, also in the central layers, to a temperature of 100° C, 
whereby we have the assurance that all the bacilli present in the 
meat will be destroyed. The organisms of tuberculosis are rendered 
harmless by heating to a temperature of 95° C. (compare page 610). 
By means of steam sterilization it is possible to save considerable 
quantities of the meat of tuberculous animals which formerly had 
to be destroyed. The meat of tuberculous animals can not immedi- 
ately be utilizable as human food, even after the general introduction 
of the steam sterilizing process. The meat of tuberculous animals 
which gives evidence of a character highly unfit for food can not be 
improved in quality by treatment with steam, and must, therefore, 
be excluded from the market after such treatment, as well as before 
it. The same is true of meat which exhibits tuberculous foci in its 
substance ; for tuberculous foci are not human food, even if they 
are sterilized. 

However, all meat which heretofore had to be excluded from 
the market because of the local character of the tuberculosis and 
the harmlessness of which was consequently doubtful, may from 
now on be admitted to the market conditionally, after a previous 
sterilization.* 



* Some authorities, among them the American author, Law, have raised 
the objection against the boiling and sterilization of the meat of tuberculous 
animals that the tuberculin contained in the meat was not thereby destroyed. It 
has been shown by A. Eber, however, that tuberculin is not demonstrable even 
when present in large quantities in the blood of extensively tuberculous ani- 
mals. 



TUBERCULOSES 645 

Utilization of the Fat of Tuberculous Animals.—: -The Royal Presi- 
dent of Police, in agreement with the magistrate in Berlin, has 
allowed the fat of rejected tuberculous hogs to be utilized as human 
food after previous rendering. As a result of this permission, the 
sides of bacon from fat tuberculous hogs, which heretofore had to 
be delivered to the knackers, may be removed from tlie carcasses, 
after carefully separating the tuberculous lymphatic glands or 
other tuberculous foci, and rendered in a digester in which a tem- 
perature of 150° C. is maintained. From a hygienic standpoint, 
not the slightest objection can be raised against this procedure. 
The sale of rendered fat, however, must take place under declara- 
tion on account of the abnormal material which is utilized in pre- 
paring the product. 

12. — Obligatory Declaration for the Meat of Tuberculous 
Animals Admitted for Food. 

In slight cases of tuberculosis, which, as a rule, are "unex- 
pectedly met with in animals which during life exhibited a picture 
of perfect health," and which also exhibited no disturbance in their 
fattening, there is no occasion, on the basis of the foregoing discus- 
sion, to exclude the meat from unrestricted traffic. Such meat is 
to be considered as marketable material. In cases of extensive 
local distribution of the tuberculous processes, especially in cases 
with widely distributed serous tuberculosis, not alone upon the 
internal organs, but also on the membranes of the body walls, it is 
necessary that the meat should be sold as an inferior food material 
under declaration of its particular character. The meat of tuber- 
culous animals which has been boiled or sterilized with steam is 
likewise to be sold under declaration. 

Rumpel studied the meat of slightly tuberculous animals by 
means of feeding experiments with a bitch, and found, according to 
these experiments, that there is no reason for characterizing the 
meat of tuberculous animals as of inferior quality. Such meat fur- 
nished the same amount of nutriment as was secured by feeding nor- 
mal meat. Likewise, with regard to the completeness of assimilation, 
the meat of tuberculous animals was quite equal to normal meat. 

13. — Scientific Method of Procedure With the Meat of 
Tuberculous Animals. 

1. The meat of animals with slight or not greatly extended, 
local, purely tuberculous alterations is to be freely admitted for 



646 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

sale as marketable material after the removal of the tuberculous 
foci. 

2. The meat of animals affected with a greatly extended, but 
undoubtedly local tuberculous process, is to be sold as an inferior 
food material under declaration (on the freibank). 

3. In cases of healed generalization, restricted entirely to the 
internal organs (lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys), the meat is to be 
treated as marketable or of inferior value, according to the degree 
of the affection. 

4. All animals, on the other hand, which exhibit pronounced 
emaciation, or the symptoms of a recent infection of the blood 
(splenic tumor and swelling of all the lymphatic glands, miliary 
tubercles in the lungs, liver or spleen), as well as muscle meat 
which is permeated with tuberculous alterations, are to be excluded 
from the market as unfit for human food and are to be utilized 
only for technical purposes.* 

5. Finally, the meat of animals in which the local character of 
the tuberculosis and the harmlessness of the meat is doubtful 
(particularly in the presence of extensive tuberculous cavities and 
incipient disturbance of nutrition) is to be admitted to the market 
as conditionally marketable food material when cooked in small 
pieces, or, better, when sterilized with steam. 

Likewise, muscle meat, after careful removal of the included 
lymphatic glands, bones and vascular trunks, may be utilized in 
cases in which merely the corresponding lymph glands, and not the 
musculature itself, exhibit tuberculous alterations. 

With regard to the fat, it may be made utilizable by rendering 
in the place of cooking or steaming. 



* In animals in which only one or a few, but not all, of the lymphatic 
glands of the muscles are affected, the procedure recommended by Hartenstein 
may be unhesitatingly recommended : that only the parts which are tributary 
to those lymph glands should be excluded from the market ; for example, in case 
of the affection of one kneefold gland, the corresponding hind quarter. Harten- 
stein recommended that the rest of the meat of such animals be admitted to the 
market in a cooked or sterilized condition, since "a certain suspicion " rested 
upon it. Since, however, we are able, by means of a careful examination, to 
assure ourselves whether this suspicion is well founded or not, there can be no 
real objection to the utilization in a raw condition of the rest of the meat 
which is free from tuberculous alterations (compare the Posen Declaration to 
the Decree of the Prussian Ministry, of March 26, 1893, page 



TUBERCULOSIS 647 



14— Official Begulations Concerning the Method of Pro- 
cedure With the Meat of Tuberculous Animals. 

Under the complex conditions which prevail with regard to 
the sanitary judgment of the meat of tuberculous animals, the 
fixed form of legal provisions or of authoritative decrees does not 
well adapt itself to the evident requirement of the principles by 
which the sanitary police should be governed. In order to prevent 
the possibility of error, a statement of reasons must be given for 
the authoritative decrees and instruction for the expert inspectors. 
These features, however, are wanting in all official provisions con- 
cerning the procedure with the meat of tuberculous animals. These 
provisions, therefore, have not everywhere served their purpose as 
well as could be desired. 

At the present time, the following legal proceedings concerning 
the meat of tuberculous animals are in force : * 

A. Kingdom of Prussia. — Decree of the Ministers of the Interior, Agricul- 
ture, Education and Commerce, of March 26, 1892. 

The regulations decreed September 15, 1887, concerning the judgment of 
the fitness for food of the meat of the tuberculous food animals, have recently 
given rise to an erroneous conception. We, therefore, order the repeal of this 
decree as well as all regulations published in technical periodicals July 22, 1882, 
and June 27, 1882, and of the decree of February 11, 1890, and order that the per- 
sons concerned should give heed to the following : 

As a rule, a harmful character of the meat of tuberculous cattle must be 
assumed when the meat contains tubercles, or when the tuberculous animal is 
emaciated without exhibiting tubercles in its meat.f 

On the other hand, the meat of tuberculous animals is to be considered fit 
for food (not injurious) when the animal is well nourished, and 

(1) When the tubercles are found exclusively in one organ; or, 

(2) When, in case two or more organs are affected, these organs lie in the 
same body cavity, and are directly connected with one another, or indirectly by 



* Through the decrees regarding the enforcement of the Imperial Meat 
Inspection Law, provisions of general application have been made concerning 
the procedure with the meat of tuberculous animals. 

f By means of a decree of the Eoyal Government President at Posen, July 8, 
1898, March 26, 1899, issued with the consent of the Ministries concerned, the 
above regulation is explained as referring only to those quarters of the meat 
which show tuberculous alterations. On the other hand, it is held that the 
other quarters in which the intermuscular lymphatic glands are unaltered may 
be admitted to the market without restriction ; and that, furthermore, the ren- 
dering and utilization of the fat of tuberculous animals as human food is to be 
permitted in all cases with the exception of parts infected with tuberculous 
alterations, which must be rendered innocuous. The sale of the fat in question 
may be permitted only under declaration. 



648 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

means of the lymphatic vessels or blood vessels which do not belong to the 
systemic circulation, but to the pulmonary and portal circulation. 

Since in reality a tuberculous affection of the muscles occurs very rarely, 
and, furthermore, since experiments conducted on a large scale for years at the 
Berlin Veterinary High School and at several Prussian Universities, in feeding 
muscle meat of tuberculous animals for the purpose of producing tuberculosis 
in other animals, have had for the most part negative results (The Union of 
the Scientific Deputation for Medical Service of December 1, 1886, Eulenburg's 
Vierteljahrsschrift fiir Gerichtliche Medizin und Oeffentliches Sanitatswesen, 
Vol. XLVII., pp. 307, ff.); since, therefore, the transmissibility of tuberculosis 
by consumption even of meat affected with tubercles is not proved, therefore 
the meat of well-nourished animals, even if the pathological conditions men- 
tioned under 1 and 2 are present, can not, as a rule, be considered as of inferior 
value, and the sale thereof can not be placed under especial police supervision. 

From the standpoint of national economy, it is desirable that meat which 
possesses a comparatively high nutritive value, such as that of superannuated 
and poor cattle, etc., shall be admitted to market, the more so since a uni- 
form judgment of such meat in all localities is impossible when we consider the 
present defective meat inspection in many regions and the utter absence of meat 
inspection in a large part of the country. 

In the future, therefore, such meat is to be freely admitted to the market. 
In doubtful cases the opinion of an approved veterinarian should be sought, 
but the courts must decide whether the meat of tuberculous animals is to be 
considered ai spoiled and whether the sale thereof violates the provisions of 
Section 367 7 of the Criminal Law Statute, or the regulations of the Food Law of 
May 14, 1879.* 

B. Kingdom, of Bavaria. — Police regulations with regard to the inspection 
of cattle and sheep apparently affected with tuberculosis (pearl disease and lung 
plague), June 25, 1892. 

Sec. 1. — If after slaughtering cattle and hogs, localized tuberculosis is 
found (pearl disease, lung plague) in the first stage of development, and if at 
the same time the slaughtered animal exhibits a good condition of nutrition, the 
meat of such animals, after the removal and destruction of the diseased organs, 
is to be freely admitted to the market and may be sold for human food. 

Sec. 2. The meat of cattle and hogs affected with generalized and advanced 
tuberculosis (pearl disease and lung plague), and exhibiting at the same time a 
state of emaciation, as well as meat which contains tuberculous foci, is to be con- 
sidered harmful and to be excluded from use as human food. It can not be 
offered for sale or sold for this purpose. 

If, in case of Sec. 2, the meat inspector is not a veterinarian, a subsequent 
inspection by an approved veterinarian may be demanded. 

Sec. 3. In doubtful cases (tuberculosis of the organs of one or more body 
cavities, transition forms between local and generalized tuberculosis), the 
opinion of an approved veterinarian is to be obtained. 

If such a vetei-inarian finds that the conditions of Sec. 1 or 2 are not present, 
then the meat may be admitted to the market under certain conditions and 



* A similar regulation concerning procedure with the meat of tuberculous 
animals has been issued in the Principality of Reuss. 



TUBERCULOSIS GA9 

restrictions and may be sold for human food, according to the degree of exten- 
sion, stage and intensity of the pathological process, and according to the 
general nutritive condition of the animal. 

C. In the Kingdom of Saxony, the following provisions are in force :* 

1. As unfit for food are to be considered : internal organs which contain 
tuberculous areas, or the lymphatic glands of which are infested with tubercu- 
lous foci. 

2. The meat is to be considered as unfit for food and the fat as fit for food, 
but not marketable (conditional utilization), in cases of tuberculosis in which 
the disease is generalized, that is, when the extension of the tuberculous process 
in the body may have taken place by means of the circulating blood (the portal 
circulation excepted) and when fresh (that is, not calcified, dried up, or encap- 
suled), or numerous older tuberculous foci are present in the muscles, bones, or 
the lymphatic glands belonging to them, or when acute, miliary tuberculosis is 
present, or when in cases of acute generalized tuberculosis, a high degree of 
emaciation is found. 

3. The meat and fat are to be considered as unfit for food in a raw condition, 
but as fit for food but not marketable (conditionally utilizable) in a cooked con- 
dition in cases of tuberculosis where 

(a) With generalized tuberculosis, the evidences of fresh generalizations are 
restricted to the internal organs and their lymphatic glands, particularly to the 
spleen, kidneys and udder, or when isolated, older (calcified, dried up or encap- 
suled) tubercular foci are present in the bones, muscle substance or lymphatic 
glands of the muscles, and these foci may be removed with certainty ; or, when 

(6) "With acute and generalized tuberculosis extensive softened foci and 
emaciation exist. 

In the same manner are to be judged and treated parts of meat which 
become contaminated with tuberculous material in removing tuberculous parts. 

Cooking can be considered as rendering the meat harmless only when it is 
accomplished in a steam cooking apparatus with pieces of meat weighing not 
more than 5 kg. ; so that the inside of the pieces of meat has been demonstrably 
exposed to a temperature of not less than 80° C. for a period of thirty minutes ; 
or when pieces weighing not more than 3 kg. are cooked for not less than three 
hours in open kettles. The rendering of the fat can be considered as making it 
harmless only when this operation is carried out in kettles on the open fire or 
when with the use of a steam apparatus a temperature of at least 80° C. is reached 
hefore the fat is poured off. 

4. All the meat, including the fat, is to be considered as non-marketable in 
cases where tuberculosis is acute and simultaneously generalized and where the 



* In the Kingdom of Saxony, the meat of animals found to be tuberculous . 
has been utilized as follows : In 1895, 1.93 per cent, of tuberculous cattle was 
destroyed, 5.51 per cent, was sold on the freibank and 92.54 per cent, freely 
admitted to the market; while 1.42 per cent, of the tuberculous hogs was 
destroyed, 24.25 per cent, sold on the freibank and 74.3 per cent, freely admitted 
to the market. In 1899, 1.41 per cent, of tuberculous cattle was destroyed, 5.15 
per cent, sold on the freibank and 93.43 per cent, freely admitted to the market ; 
while 0.83 per cent, of tuberculous hogs was destroyed, 26.06 per cent, sold on 
the freibank and 73.01 per cent, freely admitted to the»market. 



G50 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

animals are found in a good nutritive condition, or in cases of generalized tuber- 
culosis in which the generalization from the character of the tuberculosis is to be 
considered as having run its course and is restricted to the internal organs, or 
when only isolated, calcined, separable foci are present in the muscles, bones or 
lymphatic glands of the muscles. 

D. The regulations of Wurtemburg and Baden with regard to tuberculosis 
are restricted to a statement that the meat in cases of " generalized lung plague 
or pearl disease " is to be considered as "unfit for food." 

E. In the Grand Duchy of Hessen a decree of the Ministries of the Interior 
and Justice, Section for Public Hygiene, of October 12, 1883, makes the following 
provisions: "According to these principles the meat of tuber culous animals is. 
to be declared unfit for food when it must be considered as infected with tuber- 
culosis, and, therefore, as harmful, a condition which, from a scientific 
standpoint, occurs only " when the animal in question has been affected with 
generalized tuberculosis ; that is, when, according to present experience, it must 
be assumed that the tubercle virus has entered into the general circulation and 
has been distributed to all parts of the body, and especially when the meat itself 
contains infected lymphatic glands ; furthermore, when the animals, in conse- 
quence of tuberculosis or other incidental infection, are in a poor nutritive 
condition, or when the meat of such animals, on account of its general character, 
does not appear to be suiatble for human food. 

" In all other cases of tuberculosis, the meat is to be recognized as fit for food 
but not in prime market condition. The diseased parts and the surrounding 
tissue are always to be removed. This must take place, especially in tubercu- 
losis of the pleura and peritoneum, together with the parts of the meat which lie 
next to the pathologically -altered parts of these organs. " 

F. For the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin a circular letter con- 
cerning the sanitary judgment of the meat of tuberculous animals, dated May 
9, 1895, orders as follows : 

According to the observations of the undersigned Minister, the meat inspec- 
tors appear to judge the fitness for food of the meat of tuberculous food animals 
in very different ways. Since it is of not less interest to public sanitation that 
meat should not be unnecessarily excluded from the market than that no injurious 
meat should be admitted to the market, and since the lack of uniformity in the 
practice of meat inspection has already produced harmful results, therefore, the 
undersigned Minister feels obliged to prescribe for the district veterinarians 
principles which, according to the present status of science, are considered by the 
Minister as well adapted for the classification of the meat of tuberculous food 
animals : 

1. The following animals are to be absolutely excluded from use as food 
material and are to be utilized only for technical purposes : 

(a) Those in which tuberculous alterations are found in the meat, in the 
bones or in the corresponding lymph glands. 

(6) Those in which symptoms of acute miliary tuberculosis with fever are 
found. 

(c) Those in which the emaciation of the body is far advanced and in which 
numerous widely-distributed tubercles are found, or in which the symptoms of; 



TUBERCULOSIS 651 

generalized tuberculosis are present, giving evidence of the distribution of a 
toxin through the systemic circulation. 

2. As harmless for the consumers in a cooked condition (Rohr beck's steam 
cooking apparatus) , and, therefore, admissible as food material, with this restric- 
tion, is to be considered the meat of animals which are affected with tuberculosis 
to the extent described in 1, c ; or the body 'of which is still well nourished or at 
least not conspicuously emaciated. 

For the rest, it is not required from a sanitary standpoint and it is opposed 
to the interests of public economy that the meat of animals in which tuberculous 
alterations are found in a less extensive form than those described in 1 and 2, 
should be excluded from market simply on account of the presence of 
tuberculosis. 

(Signed) The Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg, 

Ministry, Section for Medical Affairs, 

Muhlenbruch. 

Tuberculosis of Birds. — Through the investigations of Rivolta, 
Mafucci, Strauss, Gamaleia, et al, it has been demonstrated that 
avian tuberculosis is produced by a bacillus which is not essentially 
different, biologically, from the organism of mammalian tuberculosis. 
The bacillus of avian tuberculosis resembles that of human and 
bovine tuberculosis with regard to form, behavior toward reagents 
and the gross anatomical lesions. However, as a rule, it is essen- 
tially pathogenic only for birds and not for mammals, as, vice versa, 
the bacillus of mammalian tuberculosis, as a rule, is not 
transmissible to birds. Nocard demonstrated that by repeated 
passages through animals the organism of mammalian tuberculosis 
could be rendered virulent for birds. The bacillus of avian tuber- 
culosis vegetates at temperatures between 25° and 45° C. Mafucci 
emphasizes, as a prominent distinction between the pathogenic 
action of the two species, the fact that the tubercle of mammals 
usually possesses giant cells, while the latter are absent in avain 
tubercles. 

Mafucci suggested that possibly the bacilli of tuberculosis of 
chickens play a part in the etiology of local tuberculosis of man. 

From a histological standpoint, Pfander demonstrated that the 
specific products of avian tuberculosis were not completely free 
from, but are very poor in Langhans' giant cells (with peripheral 
nuclei, Fig. 209), and that they exhibit caseation, not in the form of 
cloudy and finely granular masses, as in the case of mammalian 
tuberculosis, but rather in the form of a hyaline, glassy sub- 
stance. 



!*I80 i ■ 
652 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

< 

(g) Pseudo-Tuberculosis. 

Nature and Etiology. — Under the term pseudo-tuberculosis 
are included pathological processes which, without being caused by 
the tubercle bacillus, have the essential character of caseation in 
common with tuberculosis. The etiology of so-called pseudo- 
tuberculosis is exceedingly multiform. Micrococci, bacilli, clado- 
thrices and mold fungi may cause tubercle-like processes. Formerly 
tubercles produced by animal parasites were classified with the 
pseudo-tuberculous processes ; for example, when degenerated tape- 
worm larvse were present in the musculature, one spoke of cestode 
tuberculosis. Ebstein and Nicolaier accepted this term for vermin- 
ous tubercles in the kidneys of dogs and in the lungs of cats. 

Occurrence. — Tubercle-like alterations which were not pro- 
duced by the tubercle bacillus were observed by Eberth, Pfeiffer 
and other authors in guinea pigs and rabbits ; by Melassez and 
Vignal in chickens ; by Megnin and Mosny in horses ; by Hayem, 
Toupet and Eppinger in man ; and, finally, also by a large number 
of observers in food animals, especially cattle and sheep. In the 
last named animal pseudo-tuberculosis may appear as an epizootic, 
as has been the case of late years in Australia and America. 

Kitt described a case of bacterial caseous pneumonia in cattle. 
The lungs exhibited the symptoms of caseous bronchial pneumonia. 
The disease was distinguished, however, microscopically from 
tuberculous, bronchial pneumonia by the complete absence of 
calcification and the formation of cavities. The condition of the 
lymphatic glands could not be determined. In the caseous material, 
thick masses of fine rods were found which were 1.5 /* long and 
about as broad as swine erysipelas bacilli. They were readily 
stained by the Gram method and when so stained were to be 
recognized by their abundance, even in sections from the freezing 
microtome, under low magnification. 

In connection with this, from a sanitary standpoint, highly 
important observation, Kitt cites the following similar cases from 
literature : Stohr saw a case of pseudo-tuberculosis (caseous pneu- 
monia) in sucking calves, which was produced by a bacillus. Nocard 
discovered masses of bacilli lying close together in the tubercles 
which occur in France in pseudo-farcy of horses and which appear in 
the lungs, liver, spleen and lymphatic glands and show a central 
caseation. These bacilli were about as long as those of swine 



PSEUDO-TUBERCULOSIS 65& 

erysipelas and as wide as tubercle bacilli. They were stained by 
the Weigert modification of Gram's method. Courmont found a 
specific bacillus in a case of pleural tubercles in a cow, and, finally, 
Baumgarten found a specific micrococcus in a caseating granulation 
tumor in a lamb. 

Preisz and Guinard reported concerning a case of pseudo- 
tuberculosis in a sheep. Both kidneys of a sheep which was 
slaughtered in an abattoir were covered with old calcified granules 
which greatly resembled tubercles. Koch's bacillus, however, could 
not be demonstrated in the granules. By the inoculation of rabbits 
and guinea pigs the authors uniformly obtained positive results : a 
rapid generalization of small tubercle-like structures which con- 
tained large quantities of very delicate fresh bacteria, rounded at 
both ends. This micro-organism could also be demonstrated in the 
tubercles of the sheep kidneys. Preisz and Guinard are of the 
opinion that the bacterial pseudo-tuberculoses are all identical. 
Later Preisz called attention to the fact that the pseudo-tubercu- 
losis investigated by him was distinguished from true tuberculosis 
by the fact that, in the former, tubercles were rapidly produced 
and casefied immediately after their appearance, while true tubercles 
do not become visible and begin to calcify until three or four weeks 
after inoculation. 

In the frequently-occurring pseudo-tuberculosis of rodents, we 
apparently have to do with a bacterial affection as in similar cases 
in sheep and cattle. The Bacillus pseudo-tuberculosis of A. Pfeiffer, 
which is identical with the zoogleacoccus of pseudo-tuberculosis, 
described by Eberth and others, may be successfully transmitted to 
house mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits and hare. The author 
was able to demonstrate Bacillus pseudo-tuberculosis, as described by 
Kitt, Preisz and Guinard, in caseated lymphatic glands in sheep of 
various origin. In one case, reported by Turski, there was an 
extensive outbreak of pseudo-tuberculosis in a herd of Merino 
sheep. Among 150 ewes, 44, or 29.3 per cent., were more or less 
affected. The sheep which were affected with pseudo-tuberculosis 
were emaciated and after slaughter exhibited caseous alterations in 
various lymphatic glands, bronchial, mediastinal, portal, prescap- 
ular, kneefold and other intermuscular lymphatic glands. The 
lymphatic glands were either completely modified into caseous foci, 
or were sprinkled with caseous areas, varying in size from a hemp 
seed to that of a hazel nut. The substance of these areas was 
greenish-yellow, caseous, purulent, crumbling or dry, and in layers 
like an onion. Calcification was completely wanting in the case 



<354 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

described by Kitt. Moreover, the parenchyma of the internal 
organs was unaltered. On the other hand, metastatic, caseous foci 
were found in the musculature. In these foci numerous rods, 
resembling those of swine erysipelas, were demonstrated by Gram's 
staining method (Fig. 221). These rods grew on blood serum in the 
form of milk-white colonies, produced pseudo-tuberculosis in mice, 
rabbits and guinea pigs, and killed sheep with symptoms of violent 
septicemia, even when inoculated in comparatively small doses. 
Likewise in pseudo-tuberculosis of sheep, which has occurred in 
epizootic form in Australia and America, the bacillus pseudo- 
tuberculosis in question was demonstrated 
Fig. 221. as the pathogenic organism (Cherry and 

Bull, Norgaard and Mohler). 

—> t " 
i 

Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis. — 
-, '".'{,, ^" The general symptom of pseudo-tuberculous 

i. processes, caseation, has already been men- 

's / „ -~ s ' <■" tioned. Pseudo-tuberculosis has this symp- 

y torn in common with true tuberculosis. For 
% * t the differentiation of the two processes, the 

casualistic material furnishes essentially two 
B k5s in a^Tear'prepSa- criteria : First, the pseudo-tuberculous tu- 
tion of pseudo-tubercu- bercles appear, as a rule, not to contain giant 
lous mediastinal gland ot .,, t -i ti j ,i •, • 

a sheep, x 500 diam. cells or epithelioid cells ; turthermore, it is 

to be concluded from observations thus far 
made that the caseous foci which appear in the lymph glands in 
pseudo-tuberculosis do not calcify, but dry up, and, consequently, 
exhibit an onion-like stratification. 

Judgment. — The sanitary police judgment of pseudo-tubercu- 
lous alterations varies like their etiology. In all cases, however, 
the character of the process justifies the complete exclusion from 
the market of organs which are affected with the alterations in 
question, and of the meat which is sympathetically affected by the 
generalization process. 

V 

(h) Actinomycosis. 

Etiology. — Actinomycosis (ray fungus disease) belongs to the 
chronic infectious diseases. It is produced by actinomyces (ray 
fungus), which was observed by Perroncito, Rivolta and Hahn, but 



ACTINOMYCOSIS 655 

was first recognized as an etiological factor and described by 
Bollinger in 1877. 

Moephology. — Actinomyces is classified with the pleomorphic 
bacteria for the reason that in cultures it forms short and long rods, 
simple and branched threads, spirally twisted organisms and cocci- 
like elements (Wolff and Israel). In animal tissues the ray fungus 
is observed in the form of graceful rosettes, the chief character of 
which consists in club-shaped swellings of the radially-arranged 
mycelia (Fig. 222). 

In domesticated animals, actinomyces does not produce sup- 
puration, but simply an extensive infiltration of round cells and, in 

Fig. 222. 




Actinomyces mycelia from a sub-maxillary actinomycoma of a beef animal. 
X 240 diameters. 

the neighboring tissue, giant cells, the formation of which, to the 
best of the author's knowledge, was first described by Kitt (Fig. 223). 
The giant cells, however, are not of such regular form as in tuber- 
culosis, but are of a more irregular shape. Suppuration in domesti- 
cated animals is to be attributed to a mixed infection with pyogenic 
bacteria. In purulent actinomycotic foci, I was impressed with 
the fact that the fungus rosettes do not show the fine growth and 
development which we are accustomed to see in domesticated ani- 
mals, but that they resemble in this respect more nearly the ordi- 
nary picture of actinomyces in man (Fig. 225). 

By transmitted light the actinomyces rosettes exhibit an evi- 
dent greenish sheen; in consequence of calcification they lose this 
sheen and become black under transmitted light. The ray fungus 
rosettes are commonly located close together, in "mulberry-like 



656 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



masses," and thereby form pale-yellow granules of the size of 
millet seed, visible to the naked eye, and which are plainly distin- 
guished from the diseased tissue (Fig. 224). 

Pathogenesis. — Actinomyces may produce ulcers of consider- 
able size. According to their exterior condition, these ulcers are 
classified into soft and firm actinomycomata, the former being the 
more frequent. They possess the firmness of myxofibromata, while 
in the case of the firm actinomycomata, the consistency is similar 

Fig. 223. 




Section through an actinomycotic tongue, a, central part of the actinomyces ; 

i, radially arranged clavate hyphae; c, giant cells in the adjoining zone 

of infiltration. • X 240 diameters. 



to that of pure fibromata. The firm actinomycomata are compara- 
tively poor in mycelia. All actinomycotic foci are delimited from 
the surrounding tissue by a thick wall of connective tissue. 

In case of actinomycosis of one part of the body, the cor- 
responding groups of lymphatic glands may take part in the affec- 
tion. Ray fungi which accidentally find their way into the afferent 
lymphatic vessel produce in the lymphatic glands, as well as in the 
other tissues, small infiltration foci, inside of which the fungus colo- 
nies may be plainly recognized (compare Fig. 223). Neither sup- 
puration nor caseation appears in actinomycotic lymph glands. 



ACTINOMYCOSIS 657 

Occureence. — Actinomycosis is of frequent occurrence in cattle 
and hogs. As a rule, the disease appears sporadically. It may, 
however, attain an enzootic distribution (Jensen, Stienon, Clans, 
Neuwirth). In rare cases the ray fungus disease has been observed 
in horses, sheep and deer. 

In cattle, it is especially the head which is the seat of the dis- 
ease. Almost all parts of the head may be attacked by the ray 
fungus. Formerly the lower jaw was considered the most fre- 
quent point of attack. In this location the fungus may produce 
enormous deformities in consequence of rarefactive ostitis, on the 
one hand, and enormous granulation formations, on the other. 
Likewise, in the upper jaw, actinomycomata have frequently been 
demonstrated. According to recent, investigations, however, the 

Pig. 225. 
Fig. 224. 







Actinomyces mycelia from a Actinomyces mycelia from a purulent actinomy- 

laryngeal actinomycoma. coma in a beef lung. X 240 diameters. 

X 35 diameters. 

accuracy of which the author can fully verify, the tongue must be 
considered as the most frequent seat of actinomycosis. Henschel 
and Falk called attention to the fact that besides the form of lingual 
actinomycosis in cattle, known under the name of wooden tongue, 
actinomycosis occurs in this organ quite frequently in the form of 
tubercles. Henschel and Falk specified a particular part of the 
dorsal surface of the tongue which is frequently affected with 
primary actinomycosis, and which must, therefore, be carefully 
inspected in every slaughtered animal (Fig. 52). Besides in the 
musculature of the tongue, one observes fungoid actinomycomata 
(Fig. 226, b) and superficial actinomycotic erosions (Fig. 226, a) on 
the mucous membrane of the tongue and also on the mucous mem- 
brane of the cheeks and gums. These erosions are distinguished from 
similar alterations by their firm, leathery basis. Moreover, actino- 
mycotic foci may be plainly recognized in the form of yellow spots. 



G58 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



Ifc was shown by Klepzow that in cattle slaughtered at the 
Moscow abattoir the mucosa and submucosa of the under lip are 
very frequently permeated with actinomycomata. From March to 
June, 1892, among 42/230 slaughtered cattle, 1,030 cases of actino- 
mycosis were found, and among these not less than 621 cases of 
labial actinomycosis. 

In the pharyngeal cavity, larynx and esophagus, pedunculate 
actinomycomata of the size of a hazel nut or a potato frequently 
occur (Fig. 227). These are distinguished from non-actinomycotic 
polyps by their rough, pale-red surface and the sprinkling of yel- 
low spots. 

Moreover, the skin of the head and neck, as well as the sub- 
cutis of the.se parts of the body, are frequently the seat of hard or 

Fig. 226. 




Beef tongue with (a) actinomycotic erosions ; b, mushroom-shaped actinomycomata. 
The tip of the tongue also exhibits the condition of wooden tongue. 



soft, sharply delimited or diffuse ulcers, in which, when carefully 
examined, yellow spots or actinomyces colonies may be observed. 
The neighborhood of the angle of the jaw and the larynx are very 
often affected with actinomycosis. According to Rasmussen, sub- 
cutaneous actinomycomata also occur on the back, elbow and 
femur, and in the form of the so-called knee-sponge. Liipke 
observed a case of elephantiasis which was caused by actinomy- 
cosis. Actinomycosis may also take its origin from castration 
wounds. 

Contrasted with the frequency of actinomycosis in the head, 
that of other organs is rare. In the first stomachs one finds 
pedunculate actinomycomata like those in the pharyngeal cavity 
and esophagus. In the lungs smaller scattered tubercles and large 
ulcers occur up to the size of a child's head ; the latter in delimited 



ACTINOMYCOSIS 



659 



portions of the lungs. The large ulcers are, without exception, of 
a soft, myxoma-like consistency. They frequently show a central 
puriform softening. Hepatic actinomycosis appears either in the 
form of solitary ulcers (infection through fungi-bearing bodies 
from one of the first stomachs) or in the form of numerous 
abscess-like tubercles (infection through the portal vein). Actino- 
mycosis of the udder is found in cattle in the form of tubercles 
varying in size from that of a pin to that of a hen's egg, and pos- 
sessing a fibrous peripheral zone with a soft center permeated 
with actinomyces foci, or in the form of diffuse, acute inflamma- 
tion with a tendency to induration. Bang and Jensen also found 

Fig. 227. 




Bovine larynx with an actinomyeoma on the epiglottis. 



actinomycomata iu the kidneys. Affections of the intestines, blad- 
der, vagina, spleen, peritoneum, vertebral column and sternum are 
rare. In hogs, Johne has shown that the tonsils are a frequent 
seat of actinomyces. Moreover, in the hog the ray fungus fre- 
quently leads to the infection of the mammary glands, which affec- 
tion frequently appears in the form of a cold abscess. In the 
contents of the abscess one finds well developed rosettes in great 
quantity, which do not differ in any respect from Actinomyces bovis. 
Besides the abscess form, actinomyces of the mammary gland may 
appear also in the form of tubercles and large ulcers leading to 
suppuration and the formation of fistulse. Fungoid actinomyco- 
mata may grow out through the openings of the fistulae. Basmus- 
sen states that at the abattoir in Copenhagen he observed actino- 



G60 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

myces of the mammary gland in hogs in 52 cases inside of three 
months. The same author demonstrated actinomycomata in the 
subcutis on the neck, in the fore-arm, abdominal wall (castration 
cicatrices) and hind quarters of hogs. 

Finally, in the horse several cases of actinomycosis of the 
tongue, lymphatic glands and of the generalized form have been 
observed. In the sheep, one case of pulmonary actinomycosis was 
observed by Grips, and two cases of lingual as well as one case of 
labial actinomycosis by Berg. In the last named case and in one 
of the cases of lingual actinomycosis, specific alterations in the 
cavity of the lower jaw were present simultaneously. 

Generalization of Actinomycosis. — The ray fungus may, under 
certain circumstances, exhibit a general distribution. This, how- 
ever, is an extremely rare occurrence. Hertwig described a case of 
this sort in the hog, the only one in several million hogs which were 
slaughtered in Berlin. In the case in question, in addition to 
actinomycomata in the mammary gland, softened actinomycotic 
foci were found in various dorsal vertebras. Moreover, two cases of 
generalized actinomycosis were demonstrated in cattle in Berlin. 
In these two animals, in connection with actinomycosis of the head, 
embolic foci had developed in the lungs, liver, and, in one case, also 
in the neighborhood of the kidneys. Furthermore, in the second 
cervical vertebra, embolic actinomycosis (granulations and granular 
pus) was observed in a beef animal by a Swedish veterinarian 
(Jensen). 

Differential Diagnosis. — Upon superficial examination, actino- 
mycosis may be confused with tuberculosis and also with simple 
lion-specific tumors (fibromata, myxomata, etc.). In all these cases 
microscopic examination makes certain the diagnosis of actinomy- 
cosis. Moreover, the above described microscopic peculiarities of 
actinomycomata, especially the sprinkling of punctate yellow foci 
and the usual negative findings in the corresponding lymphatic 
glands, furnish important criteria for the identification of the disease, 
without the assistance of the microscope. 

Judgment. — The question whether actinomycosis of animals 
may be transmitted to mau has recently been made a subject of 
lively investigation, especially in America. The possibility of such 
•a transmission must be theoretically admitted, since Wolff and Israel 
"succeeded in inoculating actinomycosis from one animal to another- 



ACTINOMYCOSIS 661 

However, all experience is opposed to tlie spontaneous occurrence 
of a direct transmission of the disease from animals to man. 

According to statistics collected by Moosbrugger, including 75 
cases, 54 in men and 21 in women and children, the greater propor- 
tion of the actinomycotic patients had no contact with animals. In 
11 cases the occupation was not stated ; 20 cases developed among 
farmers ; 33 patients, however, had nothing to do with animals 
(millers, glaziers, tailors, merchants and students). Contact with 
•diseased animals could be demonstrated in only one case. Of the 
21 women and children, not more than 4 belonged to the farming 
class and none of these individuals had come in contact with a 
diseased animal. Concerning the transmission of actinomycosis by 
the consumption of actinomycotic organs or meat of actinomycotic 
animals, nothing whatever is known. Ponfick, Bostrbm, Nocard, 
Crookshank, et aL, are of the opinion that man and animals become 
affected with actinomycosis from one and the same source, and that 
in this regard grains are highly suspicious. Of special importance 
is the communication of Bostrom, according to which, after he had 
especially directed attention to this point, he could uniformly 
demonstrate the undoubted presence of grains in the actinomycotic 
foci. Bostrom thereby substantiated the early observations of 
others, especially the observation of Lanow, Schartau, Soltmann, 
Fischer and Bertha, who likewise found portions of grains in 
actinomycotic foci in man. Since Bostrom has called attention 
to this point, the grains of barley and the chaff of oats have been 
found in actinomycotic foci in man by Hummel, Bernstorff and 
Jurnika. 

These experiences agree entirely with those had in connection 
with domesticated animals. The usual occurrence of the disease in 
the anterior portions of the digestive apparatus in cattle speaks in 
favor of infection through the food, and the affection of the mammary 
glands in hogs, of infection through straw. Furthermore, one quite 
frequently finds positive proof of the assumed method of infection 
in parts of grains surrounded by ray fungi, especially cereal grains 
and particles of straw, within actinomycotic foci in cattle and hogs. 
Henschel and Falk have shown beyond question that lingual actino- 
mycosis arises exclusively in consequence of the penetration of 
fungus-bearing food material. Finally, the transmission of the 
disease from one animal to associated animals has never been 
observed with certainty. 

Accordingly, the assumption that the consumption of actino- 
mycotic organs is injurious to health, is scarcely justified. Under 



062 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

all conditions, we must combat this assumption for the meat of 
actinomycotic animals in case of local actinomycosis. The activity 
of the sanitary police should therefore be restricted to the removal 
of all affected organs, and these should be excluded from the market 
as highly unfit for food in so far as the removal of the specifically 
altered parts is not possible. This is the case in isolated foci in 
the tongue, and the removal of the diseased parts for the purpose 
of releasing the rest of the tongue is very desirable, since the 
tongue is so valuable an organ. 

In the extremely rare cases of generalization, the whole animal 
should be excluded from the market, since generalization in actino- 
mycosis appears to run a very atypic course, and the detection of 
all the foci (in the bones and inside the muscles) is much more 
difficult than in tuberculosis, in which a uniform affection of the 
regional lymphatic glands furnishes a valuable guide in finding the 
diseased parts. 

(i) Botryomycosis. 

History. — Under the term botryomycosis, we understand a 
chronic proliferation of the connective tissue which is produced by 
a specific micro-organism (botryomyces of Bollinger). Bollinger 
first found this fungus in 1869 in firm pulmonary tubercles of the 
size of a hazel nut or a walnut in a horse, and gave it the name 
" Zooglcea pulmonis equi." Later this fungus, after it had been 
forgotten, was discovered "anew" by Kivolta, who named it 
" Discomyces equi," as well as by Johne and Babe, who proposed the 
names Micrococcus ascoformans and 31. botryogenus. Hereupon Bol- 
linger changed his first name to botryomyces (grape fungus). 

Pathological Anatomy and Bacteriology. — Through the 
investigations of Babe, Johne and Kitt, concerning botryomycomata 
and botryomyces, the following points have been determined : 

Botryomycoma is a connective tissue tumor of chronic charac- 
ter and peculiar structure. It has thus far been demonstrated only 
in horses and in one beef animal and one hog. In horses the tumor 
is found most frequently on the spermatic cord after castration ; 
also in the intermuscular and intramuscular tissue in the retro- 
peritoneal tissue, in the subcutis under the collar, on the breast and 
tail, and, finally, in the udder, lungs, ribs and pleura. 

Botryomycosis of the lungs may arise primarily or secondarily. 
Eitt reported a case in which metastatic foci in the lungs developed 



BOTRYOMYCOSIS 663 

after a case of botryomycosis of the spermatic cord. Jensen 
enlarged the casuistics of metastatic pulmonary botryomycosis by 
three other cases : one of his own and two of Steiner and Thomsen. 
The case observed by Jensen is remarkable in that the lymphatic 
glands lying at the entrance to the thorax showed some botryo- 
myces foci as large as nuts. A similar case was observed by 
Frohner in a horse. In this case, in addition to botryomycosis of 
the spermatic cord, skin, abdominal musculature and lymphatic 
glands, metastases were present in the lungs ; also botryomycotic 
peritonitis. Botryomycoma appears in the form of tubercles of 
various size which consist of a firm connective tissue framework 
and soft, yellowish-brown tissue in the interstices. The latter con- 

Fig. 228. 



b-<: 




Botryomyces colonies, a intact, b calcified. X 35 diameters. 

sists of small tubercles, softened in the center, in which without 
exception yellowish-white granules of the size of a grain of sand 
may be demonstrated (Fig. 228). " These depositions, of the size 
of grains of sand, like the similar granules in actinomycomata, are 
to be considered as the pathogenic criteria of this new infectious 
tumor " (Johne). 

In a microscopic examination one observes that these deposi- 
tions are nothing but " mulberry and grape-shaped conglomerations 
of micrococcal masses, which lie close together, are mostly round, 
and are about 5 to 10 or even 100 pi in diameter " (Fig. 229). These 
structures are held together by a membrane or capsule. The 
masses of micrococci are stained by gentian violet and Lofner's 
methylene-blue solution. 



C>(U 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



Relationship of Botryomyces to Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus. — ■ 
Rabe determined that pure cultures of botryomyces killed guinea 
pigs, and in sheep and goats produced a round inflammatory 
edema. Kitt succeeded in cultivating cocci from colonies of botryo- 
myces which possessed great similarity to Staphylococcus pyogenes 
aureus and produced suppuration as well as connective tissue pro- 
liferation. Hell states that he always obtained S. pyogenes aureus 
in pure cultures from botryomycomata. According to Poucet, 
Dor and Parascandolo, botryomyces is a specific bacterium, never 
agrees in form, size, stainability, formation of pigment and growth 

Fig. 229. 




Botryomyces colonies from a botryomycoma of the spermatic cord. X 240 diameters. 

on various nutrient media with S. pyogenes aureus, and can be dis- 
tinguished from it by serum diagnosis. 

Diffekential Diagnosis. — Botryomycomata may be confused 
with actinomycomata, simple tumors and glanderous neomorphs. 
In all cases the findings of sand-like depositions and a micro- 
scopic examination make certain a positive diagnosis. 



Judgment. — Botryomycosis has never been demonstrated in 
man. It is not impossible, however, that botryomyces may be patho- 
genic for man in another form than in the horse — perhaps as a 
purulent organism (compare the investigations of Rabe, Kitt and 



RINDERPEST 665 

Hell).. For these reasons, at least, the parts of the organs which 
are affected with botryomycomata must be carefully removed and 
rendered innocuous. 



3.— Infectious Diseases Which Occur Only in Animals and are 
not Communicable to Man in any Form.* 

(a) Rinderpest. 

Rinderpest possesses interest merely from a veterinary police 
standpoint. For clinical and pathologico-anatomical details, refer- 
ence is here made to text books on epizootic diseases and special 
pathology. The only matter of importance to experts in meat 
inspection is the differential diagnosis of this plague, which, despite 
its unusually great infectiousness, is still quite unexplained from an 
etiological standpoint. As a result of -the great development of our 
commerce, it may occur and has occurred, in spite of our strict 
quarantine regulations, that rinderpest has suddenly broken out in 
the interior of the country. This plague is, therefore, to be kept 
constantly in mind, in sbock yards and abattoirs. 

The following are the chief diseases which may give occasion 
to confusion with rinderpest : 

Malignant catarrhal fever and intoxications. 

In malignant catarrhal fever, as well as in "rinderpest, all the 
mucous membranes may be inflamed (catarrhal, croupous and 
diphtheritic inflammations). Malignant catarrhal fever, however, 
is distinguished from rinderpest by its very slight infectiousness 
and especially by the usual involvement of the mucous membrane 
of the respiratory apparatus, by the appearance of parenchy- 
matous keratitis and by the integrity of the parenchyma of the 
internal organs. In cases of rinderpest, cloudiness of the eyes is 
wanting, while, on the other hand, the parenchyma is greatly altered 
(cloudy swelling, fatty metamorphosis). 



*The infectious diseases peculiar to the horse, Adz., horse distemper, pneu- 
monia and contagious coryza, possess only a very subordinate- significance for 
meat inspection. This is evident, on the one hand, from the usual benign 
course of these diseases, and, on the other, from the low slaughter value of 
horses. In severe cases the owner will, as a rule, prefer the risk of eventual 
death to a saving of an inconsiderable slaughter value. Transmission of horse 
distemper, pneumonia and contagious corvza to man from eating meat, has thus 
far nsver been observed ; nor have infections appeared in the attendants of ani- 
mals a(f ected with these diseases. 



(;<)('> INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

Intoxications are clinically sufficiently differentiated, from 
rinderpest by the absence of infectiousness. Intoxication may, 
however, occur in the form of an extensive outbreak. Thus, for 
example, it may occur, in the careless use of gray mercurial salve 
as an insecticide, that several or all the cattle of a herd become sick 
at the same time. Mercurial poisoning is characterized by the fact 
that it produces alterations in the digestive and respiratory appara- 
tus, which, to some extent, resemble the alterations in rinderpest, 
especially the punctate and spotted reddened areas, ulcers and sub- 
mucous infiltrates in the intestines and, finally, croupous deposits 
on the respiratory mucous membranes. In cases of mercurialism, 
on the other hand, there is wanting that universal croupous diph- 
theritic inflammation of the mucous membranes which characterizes 
rinderpest. 

In addition to mercurial poisoning, other intoxications may be 
confused with rinderpest. Such a confusion occurred a few years 
ago in the Rhine Province, where a large number of cattle suddenly 
became seriously affected after feeding on poisoned maize slump. 
In a subsequent investigation of the case one was inclined to 
ascribe the disease to the development of hydrogen arsenide which 
may have gotten into the slump by the utilization of impure sul- 
phuric acid. 

Judgment.— The meat of cattle affected with rinderpest is 
harmless for man'. This is to be considered as demonstrated by 
the numerous experiences, especially those which were had in field 
campaigns. Gerlach emphasizes the fact that rinderpest followed 
the armies in all of the European wars of the nineteenth century 
and that the meat of affected cattle was eaten without any harm. 
Prom 1813 to 1815, the allied as well as the French troops received 
cattle affected with rinderpest, and among them many animals in 
an acute stage of the disease. An isolated observation of Zuckert 
on the alleged iujuriousness of the meat of a beef animal affected 
with rinderpest has no weight against this experimental material, 
especially since in the case in question it is very probable that the 
meat had already begun to decompose. 

Despite its harmlessness, however, the meat of cattle affected 
"with rinderpest in well regulated conditions in time of peace can 
not be admitted to the market, for veterinary police reasons. The 
Imperial law of April 7, 1869, concerning regulations against rinder- 
pest prescribed incineration of animals killed on account of rinder- 
pest or dead of this disease. 



MALIGNANT CATARRHAL FEVER OF CATTLE 667 



(b) Malignant Catarrhal Fever of Cattle. 

Nature and Occurrence. — Malignant catarrhal fever is a 
specific disease of cattle. In all probability it depends upon the 
entrance of micro-organisms. Thus far, however, they have not 
been demonstrated. The disease is usually not directly infectious. 
It appears, rather, to be contracted exclusively through intermediate 
carriers (food, floors of stalls). 

Malignant catarrhal fever in the majority of cases appears 
sporadically. Under certain conditions, however, it may obtain, 
great distribution as a local plague. Frank, in Alsenz, called atten- 
tion to the occurrence of catarrhal fever in an enzootic form. Many 
similar occurrences, however, had been reported previously. The 
author, himself, observed an outbreak of the disease in which,, 
among a herd of 80 animals, 60 became more or less seriously 
affected within a short time. 

Anatomical Findings. — Pathological alterations are primarily 
observed on the mucous membrane of the respiratory apparatus. 
The mucous membrane from the nostrils to the small bronchi may 
exhibit all degrees of inflammation, catarrh, croup and diphtheria^ 
The inflammatory phenomena of the alimentary tract may be asso- 
ciated with symptoms in the form of a croupous and diphtheritic 
stomatitis and of gastritis and croupous enteritis and with the 
formation of the well-known croupous tubes. Moreover, malignant 
catarrhal fever may be complicated with inflammatory phenomena 
of the urino-genital apparatus (nephritis, cystitis and vaginitis of 
various degrees). The affection of the eyes is of characteristic and 
differential diagnostic importance (Gerlach). One observes in 
nearly all cases inflammation of the lids, conjunctivae, cornea and 
even of the iris. 

It is quite remarkable that in spite of the serious character 
of the disease, the parenchyma of the internal organs is found to 
be intact post mortem. Bollinger characterizes this fact as an 
important differential diagnostic criterion of this disease, as com- 
pared with rinderpest. The musculature also, as mentioned by 
Frank, shows no variations from the normal condition. 

Judgment. — In the larger number of cases with which I am 
acquainted, the meat of animals affected with malignant catarrhal 
fever was eaten without harm. Likewise in the literature of the 



668 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

subject there are no statements of injury to human health from eat- 
ing the meat of animals which had been affected with malignant 
catarrhal fever. 

In my own opinion, therefore, there can be no objection to the 
sale of the meat as an inferior food material if the symptoms are 
restricted simply to the respiratory apparatus, for all the post- 
mortem findings in these cases are in favor of the propositon that 
the process runs a local course. In cases of complication with 
croupous enteritis, on the other hand, and with serious inflamma- 
tory phenomena in the urino-genital apparatus, the meat is to be 
considered as highly unfit for food and is to be excluded from the 
market, for in these cases there is usually a rapid emaciation of 
the diseased animals. 

(c) Pleuro-Pneumonia of Cattle. 

General. — Pleuro-pneumonia of cattle, like rinderpest, is of 
interest chiefly from a veterinary police standpoint. This fact, 
however, should not prevent the meat inspector from giving care- 
ful attention to the disease ; for, by means of an expert control of 
the slaughter of cattle it is possible to render material assistance 
to the veterinary police in combating pleuro-pneumonia, since the 
inspection in abattoirs may serve to detect with certainty cases 
which run an occult course, and hereby to furnish a timely demon- 
stration of concealed foci of pleuro-pneumonia. 

Etiology. — Nocard and Roux, by means of a new and excellent 
culture method, succeeded in obtaining from lungs affected with 
pleuro-pneumonia micro-organisms, which, according to the state- 
ment of both investigators, do not possess the power of producing 
pleuro-pneumonia, but, like the lymph of pleuro-pneumonia, are 
capable of producing immunity against pleuro-pneumonia in cattle. 
Nocard and Roux prepared small sacks of collodion, filled them 
with bouillon, and, after a previous sterilization, inoculated them 
with a small quantity of the fluid exudation from the lungs of a 
beef animal affected with pleuro-pneumonia. When the collodion 
sacks thus prepared were placed in the abdominal cavity of cattle 
or small experimental animals, the bouillon became cloudy and 
under a microscopic examination was seen to contain a pure cul- 
ture of extraordinarily minute micro-organisms. The dimensions 
of these micro-organisms were smaller than those of the smallest 
known bacteria. They are capable of passing through the pores 



PLEURO-PNEUMONIA OF CATTLE 669 

of a Berkefeld and Chamberland filter, and can not, therefore, be 
definitely identified, even after a previous staining. Nocard suc- 
ceeded in rendering cattle insusceptible to pleuro-pneumonia by 
inoculation with the organisms cultivated " in vivo." 

The clinical picture of pleuro-pneumonia offers little of inter- 
est to us. Of much more interest are the pathologico-anatomical 
findings. Pleuro-pneumonia is a chronic, progressive pneumo- 
pleurisy. It is restricted, as a rule, to one lung (chiefly the left). 
The most striking feature of the process is the affection of the inter- 
lobular tissue, hyperemia, gelatinous infiltration and thrombosis of 
the lymph and blood vessels. The lobuli which are surrounded by 
the diseased, greatly enlarged connective tissue strands, uniformly 
exhibit various stages of hepatization (red, yellow, gray). More- 
over, necrotic lobuli (sequestration) may be present, or lobuli which 
have lost their original structure in consequence of puriform altera- 
tions. The pleura exhibits the alterations of fibrinous pleuritis. 
At first one finds only small foci in the lungs, of the size of a hazel 
nut or walnut. Finally, however, the larger portion of the lungs 
may be attacked by the progressive pathological process. The 
characteristic symptoms of pleuro-pneumonia . are the extensive 
affection of the interlobular connective tissue and the presence of 
inflammatory foci of different ages in the pulmonary parenchyma 
between the diseased interlobular connective tissue strands (mar- 
bled hepatization, according to Gerlach). A cross section through 
a lung affected with pleuro-pneumonia presents no uniform picture, 
as, for example, is obtained by a cross section through lungs 
affected with hemorrhagic septicemia of cattle, pneumonia of horses, 
or swine plague ; but always pi-esents to view freshly inflamed foci, . 
together with older ones (see Fig. 4 of the lithographic plate). 

Differential Diagnosis. — 1. Genuine Pneumonia, — In the litera- 
ture of the subject, we fiud isolated statements concerning the 
occurrence of a genuine non-infectious pulmonary inflammation in 
cattle. This usually occurs on the right side. Genuine pneumonia 
is distinguished from pleuro-pneumonia by its acute course, and, 
therefore, by the fact that the alterations in the lungs are all of 
the same age. 

2. Pectoral Form of Hemorrhagic Septicemia of Cattle. — In the 
pneumonia of hemorrhagic septicemia, we also find extensive infiltra- 
tion of the interlobular tissue and pleuritis. The hepatization of the 
lungs, however, is uniform and of the same age (as in pneumonia of 
horses). Moreover, the inoculation of animals furnishes an excellent 



670 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

differential diagnostic criterion (see under "Hemorrhagic Septicemia 
of Wild Game and Cattle "). 

3. Infectious Broncho-pneumonia of Calves. — In this disease, the 
distension of the interlobular tissue is entirely wanting and the 
pulmonary parenchyma exhibits phenomena of a lobular desquama- 
tive pneumonia. The affected parts of the lungs are grayish-red, 
rich in fluids and free from air. A slimy purulent secretion is found in 
the bronchi. The inoculation of diseased portions of the lungs does 
not, as a rule, kill small experimental animals. 

Nocard observed, in five steers imported from America, a 
contagious broncho-pneumonia which aroused a suspicion of 
pleuro-pneumonia. The disease in question, however, was distin- 
guished from pleuro-pneumonia by its acute character, flabby 
hepatization and the less extensive infiltration of the interlobular 
tissue. A considerable quantity of ropy, slimy, purulent secretion 
^escaped from some of the bronchi. In this secretion Nocard found 
a micro-organism which killed mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and 
pigeons within forty-eight hours. 

4. Traumatic Pneumonia. — The differentiation of traumatic 
pneumonia from pleuro-pneumonia is simple. In cases of traumatic 
pneumonia, a " marbled " appearance may arise in the tissue sur- 
rounding the foreign body in consequence of the extensive affection 
of the interstitial pulmonary tissue by the process. The easily 
demonstrable trauma, however, removes all doubt. 

5. Aspergillosis (see page 325). 

Judgment. — Section 85 of the Instructions with regard to the 
Jmperial Animal Plague Law declares that " the lungs of animals 
Mlled on account of pleuro-pneumonia, or dead of the disease, must 
be buried at least one meter deep, in order to render them innocuous. 
The meat of such animals shall not be removed until it is entirely 
cooled off." 

According to the provisions of the Imperial Animal Plague Law, 
the sale of the meat of animals affected with pleuro-pneumonia is 
permitted. The restriction that the meat of such animals shall not 
foe transported until after it is perfectly cool was adopted on 
account of the fact that it was assumed that a virulence attached to 
the meat while still possessed of the animal heat. 

From a sanitary standpoint, no objection can be raised against 
the release of the meat as permitted by the Imperial Animal 
Plague Law, for the meat of animals affected with pleuro-pneumonia 
is eat&n without an.y bad effects. In cases where the lungs are not 



HEMORRHAGIC SEPTICEMIA 671 

seriously affected, the meat may be considered as marketable. If, 
on the other hand, the animals are slaughtered during the crisis of 
the disease in an acute, feverish condition, in which animals sub- 
jected to emergency slaughter do not bleed adequately, the meat is 
to be sold under declaration as an inferior food material. The meat 
is usually absolutely excluded from the market in cases in which 
emaciation and edematous processes have developed during the 
course of the disease.* 

In a dissertation prepared under the direction of Jurgensen, 
"Wiedermann propounds the question whether pleuro-pneumonia 
occurs in man. The occasion for this was given by the post-mortem 
findings in two children in a region (Lustnau, near Tubingen) in 
which at the time in question pleuro-pneumonia was very prevalent 
among cattle. The lungs of both of the children were stated to 
have exhibited a picture resembling that of pleuro-pneumonia, viz., 
fibrinous pneumonia and purulent pleuritis, together with peri- 
carditis. No transmission of the virus from eating the milk or by 
any other method could be demonstrated with certainty in other 
cases and no confirmation of this observation (1878) has since been 
furnished, although there has been no lack of opportunities for 
observation in the districts affected with pleuro-pneumonia for 
example, in the government district of Magdeburg. 

(d) Hemorrhagic Septicemia of Wild Game and Cattle. 

Etiology. — This disease, thus named by Bollinger, who first 
described it, has been explained from an etiological standpoint, 
especially through the investigations of Kitt. The disease is due 
to bacteria which are classified with the group of rabbit septicemia 
(Koch), or of hemorrhagic septicemia (Hiippe). In addition to 
rabbit septicemia and the septicemia of wild game and cattle, this 
bacteriological pathogenic group includes also swine plague, buffalo 
plague and fowl cholera. In order to avoid repetitions, the most 
important peculiarities of the bacteria in question may here be dis- 
cussed together. 

The organisms of septicemia of wild game and cattle, swine 
plague, rabbit septicemia and fowl cholera are characterized by 



* As in pleuro-pneumonia of cattle, so in infectious broncho-pneumonia of 
calves and infectious pneumonia of horses, sheep and goats, no injury to health 
has been observed from eating the meat. With regard to Swine Plague, com- 
pare page 695. 



(J72 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

their almost complete agreement in morphology, biology and experi- 
mental pathogenic properties (Baumgarten) The identity of these 
bacteria, however, may still be doubted, for the certain proof of 
identity has thus far been furnished only for fowl cholera and rabbit 
septicemia (Kitt). The bacteria of this group are about 1 to 1.4 /* 
long, 0.4 to .7 yw wide, and rounded at the ends (Fig. 239). They 
are non-motile, and stain most deeply at the poles. They are 
decolorized by Gram's method. Inoculation witfrthem kills rabbits 
and mice, as well as pigeons. With regard to other experimental 
animals, considerable differences exist. . 

Quite remarkable is the peculiarity of the bacteria of the rabbit 
septicemia group that they possess, with the exception of the swine 
plague bacteria, the power of passing through the stomach unatten- 
uated. For the rest, they die in aqueous suspension at a tempera- 
ture of 55° C. for fifteen minutes, or 80° C. for ten minutes. For 
the destruction of the bacteria in the meat, however, thin slices 
must be exposed to a temperature of 80° C. for at least one hour. 
According to Hiippe, the bacteria in question are killed by being 
brought to a boiling temperature, a result which, according to 
Volsch, is not observed in imbedding the bacteria in substrata con- 
taining mucin. 

Occureence. — Hemorrhagic septicemia of wild game and cattle 
occurs in deer, wild boars and cattle. Moreover, the disease is 
transmissible to horses, hogs and goats, while sheep are infected 
with difficulty. 

Course and Anatomical Findings. — Hemorrhagic septicemia 
of wild game and cattle appears in three principal forms : As an 
exanthematic, pectoral and intestinal affection. In the exanthe- 
matic form, which is the common form of affection in cattle and 
which sometimes occurs also in wild game (Lupke),. rapidly appear- 
ing swellings of enormous size are formed on the soft parts of the 
head, neck, and develop with an elevation of the internal tempera- 
ture up to 42° C. Death may result within six hours. As a rule, 
however, it does not appear until after twelve to thirty-six hours. 
The swelling arises in consequence of serous inflammation of the 
subcutis and submucosa of the mucous membrane of the mouth. 
After death we find not only swellings, but hemorrhages in the 
different organs. 

In the pectoral form of hemorrhagic septicemia, which is the 
common form in wild game, one observes the phenomena of an 



HEMOBRHAGIC SEPTICEMIA 673 

acute pneumo-pleurisy. This form is characterized by a less rapid 
course (five to eight days). In addition to alterations in the 
thoracic cavity, hemorrhages are found, in the pectoral form of the 
disease, in all parts of the body. 

The intestinal form is, as a rule, present in association with the 
two first-named forms and is characterized by the fact that the 
feces . exhibit a bloody character in consequence of hemorrhagic 
inflammation of the intestinal mucous membrane, especially of the 
small intestines. 

Differential Diagnosis. — Hemorrhagic septicemia may be con- 
fused with anthrax (exanthematic form) and with pleuro-pneumonia 
(pectoral form). The disease is distinguished from anthrax by the 
absence of splenic tumor and anthrax bacilli, and from pleuro- 
pneumonia by the fact that the pulmonary foci are all of the same 
age. The interlobular connective tissue strands are serously infil- 
trated and consequently distended. The pulmonary lobules, how- 
ever, which lie between the infiltrated connective tissue strands 
always exhibit the same stage of inflammation, and not, as in the 
case of pleuro-pneumonia, old inflammatory foci side by side with 
fresh ones. Furthermore, in all cases hemorrhagic septicemia is 
usually recognized as such by a bacteriological examination and 
inoculation of animals. In the blood and in the bloody exudations 
one always finds the above described bacteria in large numbers. 
Mice and rabbits die within from 12 to 36 hours after cutaneous 
or subcutaneous inoculation, and exhibit, post mortem, a pro- 
nounced laryngo-tracheitis, characterized by a scarlet-red colora- 
tion of the mucous membrane of the trachea (Kitt). Moreover, 
hemorrhagic septicemia — and hereby the disease is distinguished 
from many other infectious diseases — is transmissible to experi- 
mental animals by feeding. 

Judgment. — The resistance of the bacteria of hemorrhagic 
septicemia to the gastric juice has already been mentioned. Never- 
theless, the meat of animals affected with hemorrhagic septicemia 
can not be considered as injurious to health; for the transmission 
of the disease to man has never been observed. Injuries received 
in making post-mortem examinations have never been followed by 
evil consequences and the meat of animals subjected to emergency 
slaughter has never caused any harm when eaten (Freidberger and 
Frohner). In his first communication concerning this interesting 
disease, Bollinger emphasizes the fact that the meat of diseased 



674 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

animals had been eaten by men in numerous instances and pre- 
pared in various ways without any demonstrable harm. This was 
confirmed by Franck. Moreover, according to Bollinger, contamina- 
tion of the hands with the blood while making post-mortem exami- 
nations was followed by no bad consequences. A case of illness in 
a workman after the sting of an insect at a time when hemorrhagic 
septicemia prevailed extensively could not be definitely referred to 
infection with the virus of hemorrhagic septicemia. The possibil- 
ity was not excluded that the case was one of ordinary septic infec- 
tion. Moreover, the meat of animals which have been affected with 
hemorrhagic septicemia can not be admitted to the market, since 
this disease, from a veterinary police standpoint, is classed along 
with anthrax, and is to be treated like the latter (see page 583). 

The buffalo plague (barbone disease) is also classified with the 
diseases which belong to the group of hemorrhagic septicemia. 
Buffalo plague usually attacks young animals and runs a course of 
peracute or acute septicemia with the simultaneous appearance of 
hot, doughy tumefactions in the region of the larynx. Upon post- 
mortem examination, the most striking alteration observed is an 
extensive edema of the neck, face and the base of the tongue. The 
cause of buffalo plague was discovered by Oreste and Armanni in 
a micro-organism 0.9 to 1.8 /u. long and .4 to .6 jn wide, which, mor- 
jjhologically and biologically, is closely related to the organism of 
hemorrhagic septicemia. The organisms of buffalo plague are 
found especially abundant in the subcutaneous edematous swellings, 
less abundantly in the internal organs, and not at all in the cardiac 
blood of affected animals. It was demonstrated by von Batz that 
the rabbit is extraordinarily susceptible to infection from buffalo 
plague. Babbits die within 9 to 15 hours after subcutaneous inocu- 
lation. Guinea pigs are more resistant, pigeons still more so, and 
inoculated chickens and ducks remain perfectly healthy. On the 
other hand, white and gray mice die in from 19 to 36 hours. The 
disease may be artificially transmitted to cattle, horses, sheep and 
hogs. Spontaneous transmission, however, during an outbreak of 
buffalo plague has been observed only in hogs. According to von 
Batz, buffalo plague is most closely related to hemorrhagic septi- 
cemia. 

(e) Blackleg". 

Occurrence. — Blackleg of cattle is a stationary disease. It is 
observed almost exclusively in so-called blackleg districts and is 



BLACKLEG 675 

only occasionally conveyed to other localities in the transportation 
of animals already infected. The incubation period is two days. It 
is worthy of mention that usually only cattle between one and four 
years of age are affected. Besides cattle, blackleg may rarely attack 
goats, sheep and horses. Hogs are immue to the disease. 

Bacteriology. — Blackleg, as shown by Feser and Bollinger,' is 
caused by the strictly anaerobic blackleg bacillus. On account of 
its behavior toward oxygen, it is found only in affected connective 
tissue and muscles and never in the living blood. It may occur, 
however, in the de-oxydized cadaveric blood. 

Blackleg bacilli are 3 to 6 }i long and about 1 }x wide and are 
characterized by an evident motility. As soon, however, as sporu- 
lation begins, they become non-motile (Kitasato). The spores 
occupy a polar position in the straight, stiff 
rods and the blackleg spores are character- Fig. 230 

ized by their strong resistance to heat. ^ 

Kitasato emphasizes the fact that the N 

irregular, shining corpuscles, which may be o jp 

found in the bacilli while the animal is ^ 

living, and which are characterized by the I * <* 

fact that they stain better in the ordinary ^ 
manner than the bacilli themselves, are not • 

spores. " The true blackleg spores (resting BlaC spore b bea^° Stl7 
spores) are not formed in the animal body X 500 diameters. 

until from twenty-four to forty-eight hours 

after the death of the animal." Pieces of meat taken immediately 
after death and heated for twenty minutes at a temperature of 65° 
C proved to be sterile upon inoculation, while material which was 
taken two days after death and treated in the same manner killed 
all the experimental animals by the development of blackleg. 
According to the experiments of Kitt, blackleg bacilli in dried meat 
are not destroyed by live steam, but are merely attenuated. Fresh 
blackleg meat was not sterilized, but was merely rendered somewhat 
less infectious by boiling one hour in a steamer, and the same is 
true for dry meat powder after similar treatment for six hours. 

Symptoms. — Blackleg infection, as in the case with all diseases 
caused by anaerobic material, takes place only in the subcutis or 
submucosa in consequence of injury to those parts. The most 
important criterion of this almost always fatal.disease is the appear- 
ance of crackling tumors which contain gas and which extend very 



676 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

rapidly. The most frequent locations of the tumors are the thigh,, 
neck, shoulder aud lower part of the breast as well as loin and 
sacral regions (Friedberger and Frohner). Simultaneously there- 
is a serious disturbance of the general condition and a high fever 

(42° C). 

Anatomical Findings. — The skin over the tumors crackles when 
stroked and is, as a rule, necrotic. The subjacent subcutis is infil- 
trated with bloody gelatinous material and the musculature is 
cloudy and either reddish-brown or black. An abundant accumu- 
lation of gas may be demonstrated in the subcutis and musculature. 
The gas possesses a disagreeably stale odor (chiefly carburetted 
hydrogen), but no odor of decomposition. The rest of the muscu- 
lature may be only slightly altered. Numerous hemorrhages are 
found under the serous membranes. The parenchyma of the liver 
and kidneys and the myocardium are cloudy. In the thoracic and 
abdominal cavities, serous effusions mixed with blood may be 
present. The spleen is intact and the blood shows no alterations. 

Differential Diagnosis. — Blackleg may be confused with 
dermal emphysema of mechanical origin, malignant edema and 
anthrax. 

Dermal emphysema may arise mechanically from injuries of 
the external skin, trachea and larynx, as well as secondarily in con- 
nection with interstitial pulmonary emphysema (see page 321). 
Emphysemata of mechanical origin gradually progress from the 
cervical region ; the skin does not become necrotic and when an 
incision is made we do not find any bloody, gelatinous effusions. 
Finally, no bacilli are demonstrable. In malignant edema, the gases, 
after necrosis of the skin has taken place, possess the odor of 
decomposition. Furthermore, in a bacteriological examination, the 
bacilli of blackleg are distinguished from those of malignant edema 
by the fact that they are more slender than the latter and never 
develop into threads in the carcass. Spore formation in blackleg 
bacilli occurs only in a polar position (drum-stick form) and not in 
the middle as in the bacilli of malignant edema. 

With malignant edema is associated a so-called parturient 
blackleg (Carl). This rarely occurs in blackleg regions, but fre- 
quently in regions in which true blackleg has never been observed. 
In contrast with true blackleg, it is also frequently observed in old 
cows. According to Albrecht, parturient blackleg occurs two to five 
days after parturition and usually causes death within one to three. 



BRAXY 677 

days. The chief clinical symptoms are fever (41° C. or more), 
depression, lack of appetite and thirst, and a tumefaction of the 
external genitals which extends to the sacrum, thigh and back, and 
crackles on stroking. A foul-smelling fluid is found in the uterus 
and vagina, post mortem, pronounced reddening of the mucous 
membrane and edema of the submucous and muscularis coats of the 
uterus. The emphysematous parts of surrounding tissues are 
affected with bloody serous or fibrinous infiltration. In two cases 
of parturient blackleg, Carl demonstrated the bacillus of malignant 
edema as the cause of the blackleg-like alterations. 

The differentiation of blackleg from anthrax should not offer 
any difficulty in the present state of our knowledge concerning the 
etiology of both diseases. Blackleg is distinguished macroscopi- 
cally from anthrax by the crackling tumors, intact spleen and the 
normal character of the blood. All doubt may be removed, how- 
ever, by the bacteriological findings, and especially by the inocula- 
tion of animals. Rabbits are immune to blackleg and guinea pigs 
.are infected with blackleg only by a subcutaneous injection, while 
anthrax kills rabbits as well as guinea pigs by mere cutaneous 
inoculation. 

Judgment. — The older veterinary observers have already called 
attention to the fact that the meat of animals affected with blackleg 
may be eaten by man without any harm, and that, in contrast with 
anthrax, infection does not take place in man even in dissecting the 
carcasses. The meat of animals affected with blackleg is accordingly 
not injurious to health. Nevertheless, it is always highly unfit for 
food, for it rapidly passes into decomposition, and while being pre- 
served develops a disagreeable, rancid odor resembling smoked 
Herring (Kitt). 

For veterinary police reasons, the carcasses of animals affected 
with blackleg must be rendered innocuous, since blackleg, like 
hemorrhagic septicemia of cattle, is, from a veterinary police stand- 
point, classed with anthrax (page 583). 

(f) Braxy. 

Nature and Occurrence. — Braxy (braasot of the Norwegians 
and braxy of the Scots) is an infectious disease of sheep, which 
runs an acute or peracute course, which begins as a hemoiThagic 
inflammation of the mucous membrane of the fourth stomach, is 
accompanied with a pronounced development of gas in the alimen- 



678 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

tary tract, especially in the stomachs, and in some cases causes > the 
death of the animal by general infection, in others, presumably, by 
intoxication or dyspnea, due to tympanites (Jensen). The disease 
for the most part attacks young animals ; animals over three years 
of age are seldom affected with braxy. It is, furthermore, worthy of 
note that braxy is observed almost exclusively in the winter mouths 
and either does not occur at all in the summer or only rarely. 

Braxy occurs in an epizootic form on the west coast of Norway, 
in Iceland, Faroe Islands and in Scotland. According to Gamge. , 
the annual loss from braxy in Scotland amounts to about 150,000 
sheep. In Germany the disease has been identified in Mecklen- 
burg. It is said to occur there quite frequently (Peters). 

Etiology. — Credit should be given to Ivar Nielsen for having 
cleared up the etiology of braxy. In the hemorrhagically altered 

parts of the alimentary tract and in other 

Fig. 231. organs of affected animals, he found a 

^ bacillus 2 to 6 /t long and 1 jj, wide, B. 

S~ . gastromycosis ovis (Fig. 231). The bacillus 

is actively motile and is stained by Gram's 

/"~y i method. It is often found associated in 

""* — pairs ; seldom, however, in longer chains. 

/ n^ The braxy bacillus is anaerobic, grows in 

\ I gelatin, agar and gelatin-agar, but best on 

"> x blood-serum-agar and blood-serum-bouil- 

Braxy bacilli from the hem- Ion (Jensen). In the carcass and in arti- 
orrhagic exudation of a sub- g c j a i nu t r i e nt media, the bacillus forms 
cutaneously infected guinea . -in 

pig. x 500 diameters. spores, either m the middle or at one 

pole, and may be transmitted to mice, 
pigeons, chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits, sheep, calves and hogs by 
subcutaneous inoculation. At the point of inoculation a hemor- 
rhagic inflammation develops with the formation of gas as in 
blackleg. Artificial infection of sheep by feeding has not been 
accomplished. The spores of the braxy organisms are very resist- 
ant and withstand boiling heat. 

Clinical Symptoms. — Sheep become suddenly sick, exhibit 
weakness, usually lie down and are unable to stand again. This 
comatose condition persists for a few hours and leads almost uni- 
formly to death. 

Post-mortem Findings. — The carcasses of dead animals are 
much bloated. The wool is so loose that it may be rubbed off 



DIPHTHERIA OF CALVES 679 

with the hand. The most striking alterations are dark, bluish-red 
spots in the wall of the fourth stomach. The mucous membrane 
of this organ is of a dark-red color and shows a bloody or bloody- 
serous infiltration. Hemorrhagic inflammation may also be present 
in the first stomachs and to a greater or less extent in the intes- 
tines. The parenchyma of the liver and kidneys, as well as the 
myocardium, are cloudy. , Occasionally the spleen is somewhat 
swollen. The carcasses rapidly pass into decomposition and give 
rise to a powerful stench. 

Judgment. — Braxy runs its course so rapidly that, as a rule, 
affected animals die. The question of judging the meat of sheep 
affected with braxy, therefore, possesses no practical interest. It 
should be remembered, however, that the disease may be carried 
by means of meat traffic, and that, on account of the resistance of 
the braxy spores to heat, we are not in a position to destroy the 
virulence of the meat by boiling. The meat of sheep affected with 
braxy is, therefore, to be rendered innocuous, for sanitary and 
veterinary police reasons. It is of interest, however, to note that the 
meat of sheep which have died of braxy is quite commonly eaten in 
Scotland, without a single case of illness having appeared in the 
consumers (Jensen). To remove the disagreeable odor, the meat is 
rubbed with salt, washed in water, again salted and smoked. After 
some weeks, braxy meat, according to the somewhat questionable 
statements -of Scottish informants, is as good or even better than 
the meat of healthy sheep. 

Reindeer Plague. — -^Reindeer plague, which, in the summers of 
1895 and 1896, prevailed among the reindeer herds of the Laps, 
appears with symptoms resembling blackleg. The subcutaneous 
emphysema is not so well delimited as in blackleg. Furthermore, 
on post-mortem examination one finds, in addition to the accumula- 
tion of gas in the subcutis, occasionally a fibrinous inflammation of 
the pleura and peritoneum. In the spleen and pericardial fluid, 
bacilli are found, which are more slender than the anthrax bacilli 
and bear an oval spore in the center or at one pole. The bacilli 
are stained by the Gram method, are aerobic, produce gas and kill 
mice as well as guinea pigs. 

(g) Diphtheria of Calves. 

Nature. — In 1877, Dammann described under the name of 
"calf diphtheria" a disease of calves, the most conspicuous symp- 



680 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

toms of which consist in the appearance of croupous deposits and 
diphtheritic inflammation upon and in the mucous membranes of 
the mouth and pharyngeal cavities. These alterations may also 
develop in the esophagus, second stomach, small intestine, nasal 
cavity, larynx and trachea, and may reach an acute stage. The dis- 
ease possesses an unusually malignant character ; most animals die 
after four or five days, or after two or three weeks. 

Etiology. — According to the investigations of Dammann, the 
infectious nature of the disease is certain. He succeeded in trans- 
mitting the disease to rabbits and lambs. Loftier studied the 
pathological products of calf diptheria and found in them bacilli 
which formed large undulating threads, but which were essentially 
different from the diphtheria bacillus of man. 

According to Bang, the bacillus found by Loftier in the caseous 
foci of calf diphtheria is a widely distributed pathogenic organism 
and not only has the power of producing the alterations of calf 
diphtheria in calves, but may also cause necrosis in other domes- 
ticated animals and in various organs. Bang, therefore, gave the 
bacillus the name "necrosis bacillus." It is identical with the 
organism discovered by Schmorl in an epizootic disease of rabbits, 
and called Strejrfothrix cuniculi. 

The necrosis bacilli are thread bacteria which appear as short 
or long rods and as threads of 80 to 100 // in length and 0.75 to 
1.5 fx in thickness. The threads are stained with Loffler s blue and 
with carbol fuchsin, but not by the Gram method. In the necrotic 
foci the necrosis bacilli are found arranged radially and often in 
thick bundles like palisades on the boundary between the living 
and the dead tissue. Inside of the necrotic parts they are not 
demonstrable, or, if so, only with difficulty. The necrosis bacilli 
are strictly anaerobic, grow only in blood serum and blood serum 
agar, and may be transmitted to mice and rabbits by subcutaneous 
inoculation. In mice a necrosis of the inoculation wound appears 
with pronounced collateral edema and death after about 12 days. 
In rabbits, on the other hand, necrosis is progressive and results 
in death in from 12 to 16 days. 

In addition to calf diphtheria, the necrosis bacillus of Bang 
has been found in panaris of cattle, in dry gangrene of the skin 
and subcutis of the teats of cows, in multiple necrosis of the liver 
of cattle, in one form of liver abscess of cattle which arose from 
necrosis of the liver, in deeply penetrating diphtheria of the small 
intestine of the calf, in diphtheria of the uterus and vagina, in 



DYSENTERY OP CALVES 681 

embolic necrosis of the lungs,* in cardiac necrosis, one case of 
which was of embolic and the other of traumatic origin, in wound 
necrosis of a' beef animal, in gangrenous dermatitis, fistula of the 
hoof, and diphtheria of the colon of a horse, and in necrosing 
processes in the oral and nasal cavities, lungs and intestine of a 
hog (see under "Hog Cholera"). M'Fadyean and Hamilton found 
multiple necrosis also in the liver of a sheep and of a mule. Fur- 
thermore, the author has repeatedly demonstrated bacillar necrosis 
of the mucous membrane of the first stomachs of cattle. 

Eelation Between Diphtheria, of Calves and Human Diph- 
theria. — The assumption of Dammanr that calf diphtheria is 
identical with diphtheria of man is accordingly not substantiated by 
bacteriological investigations, since no observation whatever has 
been recorded of the occurrence of true diphtheria in domesticated 
animals identical with human diphtheria (compare also " Diph- 
theria of Fowls "). Likewise, inoculation experiments with virus of 
human diphtheria have given negative results in animals. In no 
case has a disease been produced in experimental animals similar 
to human diphtheria. At most there were local affections of the 
mucous membranes. Friedberger and Frohner emphasize the fact 
that similar inoculation experiments with exclusively negative 
Tesults have been made by Colin in hogs, Harley in dogs, Pentzoldt 
in rabbits, chickens and pigeons, and Esser in calves. 

Judgment. — The necrosis bacillus is characterized by its ten- 
dency to localization. In the case of a local necrosis, as in 
diphtheria of calves, and in the absence of symptoms of septicemia 
of a secondary nature arising from necrosis, the meat can be 
admitted to the market as a spoiled (inferior) food material. 

In cases of a secondary sepsis, the meat should be treated as a 
dangerous food material. 

(h) Dysentery of Calves. 

Among the intestinal diseases of domesticated animals, enzootic, 
so-called, white dysentery of calves possesses special interest on 
account of the frequency of its occurrence. 

Bacteriology. — Jensen demonstrated that not only in the 
intestinal contents and the inflamed mucous membrane, but also in 



* Embolic pulaionary necrosis in cattle may occasion confusion with pleuro- 
pneumonia. 



682 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

the swollen tyniphatic glands and in the blood of calves affected 
with dysentery, oval bacteria (" calf dysentery bacteria ") occur, 
which in feeding experiments produce fatal dysentery in new-born 
calves, but in subcutaneous iuoculation cause either a local swelling 
or septicemia. The organism of calf dysentery is morphologically 
and biologically closely related to Bacillus coll communis, B. neapoli- 
tanus and B.fcetidus lactis (Fig. 232).* 

The clinical symptoms of dysentery of calves are well known. 
Upon post mortem examination one finds advanced emaciation, 
diffuse red coloration of the mucous membrane of the small intestine 
and cecum, swelling of the mesenteric glands and often hemorrhages 
in them, petechise under the epicardium and a dirty-red coloration 
of the skeletal musculature. As a rule, the liver, spleen and kidneys 
show no gross alterations. 

Fig. 232. Fig. 233 



\\ 



o 



* 



\ v-> * 



M 



Bacteria of calf dysentery from an Bacteria of calf dysentery from a 

agar culture 24 hours old. smear preparation from the crural \ 

X 500 diameters. vein of a calf slaughtered in the 

crisis of dysentery. X 500 diam. 

Judgment. — The meat of calves affected with dysentery — that 
is, of calves which are prematurely slaughtered on account of dys- 
entery — is almost always admitted to the market, and, as a rule, no 
harm has resulted therefrom. The meat, however, is a spoiled 
(inferior) food material and should be sold only under declaration. 
The attention of the purchasers should be called to the fact that the 
meat must be eaten soon, since it passes into decomposition in a 
comparatively short time. If calves affected with dysentery are not 
slaughtered until the agony of the disease, the meat must be con- 
sidered as a harmful food material, according to present knowledge. 
At any rate, the harmfulness of the meat of dysenteric calves 



* During his investigations of white scour in Ireland, Nocard found a pas- 
teurella to be the pathogenic organism. Calves become infected at the time of 
birth, through the umbilicus. — Translator. 



SWINE ERYSIPELAS 



683 



slaughtered during the agony is connected with the fact that in 
such cases the specific bacteria are found also in the blood (Fig. 
233). Furthermore, the dysentery bacteria may multiply excess- 
ively, even at ordinary temperatures, in the carcasses of calves sub- 
jected to emergency slaughter (the author). In doubtful cases, 
therefore, the decision concerning the admission of the meat to the 
market should be based on a bacteriological investigation (compare 
page 739). 

(i) Swine Erysipelas. 

Nature. — The elucidation of the term " swine erysipelas " is 
due entirely to bacteriology. Swine erysipelas has nothing in com- 
mon with erysipelas of man except the reddening of the skin. 



Fig. 234. 



Fig. 235. 




1 :- : /V 






Swine erysipelas bacilli. Smear pre- 
paration from the cardiac blood of 
an inoculated mouse, stained with 
f uchsin. X 500 diameters. 



Same preparation as Fig. 234, 
staited by the Gram method. 



"While, however, the erysipelas of man, or traumatic erysipelas, 
which also occurs in hogs, is caused by Streptococcus erysipelatis 
(Fehleisen), the organism of swine erysipelas is a delicate, slender 
bacillus, and, for the purpose of differentiation, swine erysipelas is 
also called " bacillar erysipelas of swine." 

Bacteriology. — The discovery of the swine erysipelas bacillus 
is due to the investigation of the bacteriologist Loffler, who has 
done much toward the elucidation of the etiology of animal plagues. 
As a result of the discovery of the swine erysipelas bacilli, we are 
in a position to distinguish bacillar erysipelas from the other 
epizootic diseases of hogs with which it was formerly classified and 
confused. Further valuable results in the elucidation of the subject 



684 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

were accomplished by the work of Scliiitz, Lydtin and Schottelius. 
The bacilli of swine erysipelas are about 0.8 to 1.5 jj. long and .1 to 
.2 /< wide. They are rendered visible, therefore, only by the use of 
oil immersion. The bacilli are stained by all the basic aualin dyes 
as well as by Gram's method. By means of the latter stain, it is 
possible to demonstrate all the erysipelas bacilli present in the 
preparation (compare Figs. 234, 235). The growth of these bac- 
teria on gelatin is characteristic. Stab cultures at a living tempera- 
ture, after three or four days, take on the form of a test tube brush. 
In plate cultures, on the other hand, bluish gray spots appear after 
two or three days, which under slight magnification exhibit a deli- 
cately branched figure (configuration of a bone corpuscle). Spores 
have not been observed in the erysipelas bacillus. Petri and 
Maasen demonstrated that the erysipelas bacilli possess to a high 
degree the power of forming sulphuretted hydrogen. The fact that 
the growth of erysipelas bacilli does not require a blood temperature 
explains the fact demonstrated by Lydtin and Schottelius, that 
erysipelas bacilli in the carcass may multiply to such an extent that 
within twenty-four to forty-eight hours all the vessels are filled with 
bacilli. 

Susceptibility of Other Animals to Erysipelas Bacilli. — The erysip- 
elas bacilli are transmissible by inoculation to mice, rabbits and 
pigeons. Horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, cats and guinea pigs, on the 
other hand, are immune to bacillar erysipelas. At first it was sus- 
pected that the erysipelas bacillus of hogs was identical with the 
bacillus of mouse septicemia, with which it agrees almost completely, 
morphologically and biologically, as well as with regard to its 
pathogenicity to mice, rabbits and pigeons. This view, however, 
can not be sustained, since Preisz has shown that in the inoculation 
of hogs the erysipelas bacilli are virulent, while those of septicemia 
are not. Prettner, however, has lately maintained the identity of 
both species of bacteria on the basis of experimental investigations. 

Resistance of Erysipelas Bacilli to Heat and Breserving Re-agents. — 
The erysipelas bacilli belong to the least resistant micro-organisms. 
It is difficult, however, to kill the bacilli, with certainty, in meat by 
means of the common domestic and commercial methods of prepar- 
ing and preserving. This has been demonstrated by the thorough 
investigations of Petri. The same investigator reported as follows 
concerning these investigations : 

1. The bacilli of swine erysipelas may usually be killed by 
heating to 55° C; for five minutes. In some cases, however, they 
endure a temperature of 70° C. for the same period. 



SWINE ERYSIPELAS 685 

2. In the usual methods of cooking, frying and roasting, the 
heat penetrated into the pieces of meat very irregularly and slowly 
even when the period of application of heat was extended to four 
hours. Bones seemed to conduct the heat into the center of the 
mass more rapidly than the soft parts. 

3. In pieces of meat not heavier than 1 kg. from hogs affected' 
with erysipelas, it was not possible to kill with certainty all the 
erysipelas bacilli, especially those which were found deep in the 
muscle or in the bone marrow, by means of the ordinary methods 
of boiling, frying and roasting, By boiling, for two and one-half 
hours, pieces of meat which were not heavier than those mentioned 
above, this result was obtained with certainty, although the same 
result was not secured by long frying and roasting. 

4. The usual salting and pickling materials, common salt, salt- 
peter and sugar, in a concentrated aqueous solution, affected the 
germinating power of erysipelas bacilli in pure cultures only 
slightly and slowly; so that the destruction of the bacilli was not 
Accomplished until after four weeks. Pickling brines containing 
albumen and other materials obtained from the meat itself exer- 
cised a more energetic effect upon the bacteria. The death of the 
bacteria occurred after about eight days. 

5. In the meat of hogs affected with erysipelas, the virus was 
present in an unattenuated form after salting for one month. 

6. In pickling meat covered with brine, the erysipelas virus 
retained its normal virulence for several months. A slight attenua- 
tion appeared after the lapse of this time, but even after six 
months there were still virulent erysipelas bacilli in the pickled 
meat. 

7. After meat which had been salted or pickled for one month 
was thoroughly smoked for 13 days, the erysipelas bacilli in pieces 
of meat freshly removed from the smoke were still unattenuated. 
It was not until after a further preservation of the meat that the 
bacilli appeared gradually to lose their virulence. After a period 
of three months some virulent bacilli could still be demonstrated in 
smoked hams. In the bone marrow, also, the bacilli retained their 
virulence for a long time. It was not until after the lapse of six 
months after smoking that the erysipelas bacilli in hams appeared 
to have died. 

According to Petri, however, boiling small pieces (under 1 kg.) 
for 2*- hours gives k guaranty that the erysipelas bacilli are 
destroyed, even in the central parts of the meat. 

A certain destruction of the bacilli in the meat of hogs affected 



686 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

with erysipelas is accomplished by steam sterilization more quickly 
than by boiling. 

Occurrence. — The improved breeds of hogs with light-colored 
skin are most disposed to erysipelas, while native hogs are least sus- 
ceptible. In animals under three months of age, erysipelas is rare. 

Erysipelas causes annually enormous losses in the national 
wealth. According to statistics collected in the Grand Duchy of 
Baden, the number of hogs affected with the disease in that region 
in the period 1875 to 1884 was not less than 62,568, or 1.8 per 
cent, of the total number of hogs. Of this number, 7,004 recovered, 
15,512 died and 40,052 were slaughtered for meat. In Saxony, the 
annual loss is estimated to be at least 1.3 to 2.8 per cent. 

Distribution of Swine Erysipelas by Means of Meat Traf- 
fic. — From a veterinary police standpoint, the question whether 
bacillar erysipelas of hogs can be disseminated as a result of feed- 
ing offal and meat or blood of diseased animals is of the greatest 
importance. Several observations appear to favor an affirmative 
answer, and Pasteur, Lydtin and Schottelius assert they have pro- 
duced the disease by feeding erysipelas material. Against these 
positive results, however, we have the negative results of Petri, 
who tried in vain to infect three young hogs by feeding erysipela- 
tous organs and parts of meat, although in two experiments he 
fed 100 gm. of coarsely minced material. Fischer and Bang fed 
material from acute erysipelas of hogs with similar negative results. 
Fischer fed the spleen, liver, contents of the stomach and intestines, 
a,nd excrement without result, while he obtained positive results by 
confining healthy hogs with diseased ones. It should always be 
remembered, however, that the erysipelas bacilli disseminated by 
means of meat traffic may, when set free, acquire an increased viru- 
lence under conditions which are thus far not well understood, and 
may produce outbreaks of erysipelas. 

Clinical Symptoms and Pathologico-anatomical Findings.— 
Bacillar erysipelas of hogs appears suddenly, and, as a rule, 
quickly leads to death. The essential symptom of bacillar erysipe- 
las, in addition to fever, great depression and weakness, is a red 
coloration of the skin, which first appears in spots, but rapidly 
spreads over the whole body. The redness of the skin is character- 
ized by its dark shade. 

Upon post-mortem examination of animals affected with ery- 
sipelas, one uniformly finds extensive alterations in the internal 



SWINE EEYSIPELAS 



687 



organs. In addition to the reddening of the skin and of the panni- 
culus adiposus, there appears extensive parenchymatous degenera- 
tion of the liver, heart, and, in a higher degree, also of the kidneys. 
Hemorrhages are observed under the serous membranes. The 
spleen is quite swollen and of a bluish-red color. In the stomach 
and intestines, one observes the symptoms of inflammation in vari- 
ous stages, but, as a rule, bloody, with extensive affection of the 
lymph follicles in the inflamed area. The lymphatic glands exhibit 
tumefaction and hemorrha- 
ges. Moreover, nephritis of Fig. 236. 
a hemorrhagic character is 
seldom absent. The kidneys 
are dark, grayish-red and 
swollen, and a cloudy, red- 
dish - colored fluid exudes 
from the cut surface. The 
symptoms vary, as is readily 
understood, according to the 
stage of the disease in which 
the animals are slaughtered. 
In animals slaughtered dur- 
ing the agony of the disease, 
the above described altera- 
tions are very pronounced. 
Moreover, in these cases the 
musculature is discolored, 
grayish-red, and, altogether, 
the internal organs, especially 
the liver, are very rich in 
blood. 

The carcasses of animals affected with erysipelas, in addition 
to the above mentioned alterations, possess the further peculiarity 
that, as a rule, they exhibit either no, or only a slightly pronounced, 
rigor mortis (Hertwig), and rapidly pass into decomposition. 

Bang has given us detailed information concerning an interest- 
ing and important sequela of bacillar erysipelas. After Hess and 
Gillebeau, as well as Schottelius, had called attention to the fact 
that hogs which recover from natural or inoculation erysipelas may 
subsequently become affected and die of endocarditis, Bang made 
the surprising discovery that this endocarditis of hogs which 
recover from erysipelas is due to a localization of the erysipelas 
bacilli in the valves of the heart. This endocarditis (Fig. 236) may 




Heart of a hog with valvular verrucose endo- 
carditis as a sequela of swine erysipelas. 
a, warty thickenings. 



688 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

reach such an acute stage within two months that it causes death 
from mechanical causes. The animals either die suddenly or show 
symptoms of disease for eight to fourteen days. In the latter case 
a reddening of the skin appears. This, however, in general is less 
intense than in cases of acute erysipelas. It is worthy of mention, 
according to Bang, that this reddening of the skin may appear more 
conspicuously after death than during life. Burggraf demonstrated 
erysipelatous endocarditis in four out of 30,000 slaughtered hogs. 

Differential Diagnosis. — The following diseases may be mis- 
taken for the hemorrhagic infiltration of the skin in cases of bacillar 
erysipelas : (1) Reddening of the skin from mechanical causes 
(blows from clubs, whips, etc.) ; (2) inflammation of the skin from 
thermic causes (sun's rays, intense cold) ; (3) traumatic erysipelas ; 
(4) swine plague ; (5) hog cholera ; (6) urticaria. 

Erythrism of the skin from mechanical or thermic causes is* 
always confined to the skin. In extreme cases of blows from clubs, 
which are, however, distinguished by their characteristic form, the 
panniculus adiposus may also be colored red in consequence of 
hemorrhages. The internal organs, however, are always intact. 
Reddening of the skin from mechanical causes is due to hemor- 
rhages. In cases of inflammation of the skin which appear after 
prolonged direct action of the sun's rays upon susceptible hogs, we 
have a reddening which at first -is punctate and confined to the 
skin ; later the inflammatory reddening of the skin assumes a diffuse 
character, but is distinguished from erysipelas by its lighter shade 
and the complete integrity of the hypodermal fat tissue. Inflam- 
matory phenomena of the skin in consequence of freezing are usually 
localized on the inferior parts of the body (lower portion of the 
breast and abdomen, posterior portion of the cheeks). This condi- 
tion may result in necrosis in cases of prolonged transportation 
during intense cold. 

In cases of defective bleeding, it may occur that stunned and 
stuck hogs exhibit active movements after being placed in the 
scalding vat. In such animals one observes a light red color similar 
to that which is clue to the action of the sun's rays and restricted to 
the unscalded parts of the skin. Brusaffero maintains, further- 
more, that he observed hyaline degeneration in the muscles which 
were not submerged. 

Traumatic erysipelas in hogs usually appears in the form of a 
painful inflammation of the skin about the head and may lead to 
necrosis. According to Graffunder, erysipelas of the head in hogs 



SWINE EKYSIPELAS 



689 



Fig. 237. 



is usually unilateral. When one considers the usual picture of 
swine plague and hog cholera, it is difficult to understand how these 
diseases were formerly confused with swine erysipelas. The alter- 
ations in the internal organs, especially in the lungs, spleen, 
intestines and kidneys, are of a totally different sort (page 694 
to 703). Moreover, the reddening of the skin which is common to 
the diseases just named is in cases of swine plague 
restricted to the deeper-lying parts of the body and 
possesses a lighter shade of color. Urticaria appears 
in the form of rhombic, dark-red, elevated areas 
(Fig. 238). The red spots on the skin do not coalesce. 
The internal organs are intact. 

In all cases erysipelas should be recognized 
without special difficulty by the course of the disease 
and the findings at the time of slaughter. For a 
bacteriological confirmation of the diagnosis, Johne 
recommends the preparation of a stab culture from 
the interior of the spleen in addition to the demon- 
stration of the erysipelas bacilli under the micro- 
scope. Stab cultm-es in gelatin show the character- 
istic form of a test tube brush after a few days 
(Fig. 237). 

Judgment. — It must be considered as demon- 
strated by experience in hundreds and thousands of 
cases that the consumption of the meat of erysipe- 
latous hogs is without injurious effect upon man. 
This fact was emphasized even during the '50's 
by experienced veterinarians (Nicklas, Hartmann, 
Straub, Gerlach, et al.) at a time when bacillar ery- 
sipelas of hogs was still erroneously considered to 
be anthrax. Hartmann, for example, in his veter- 
inary reports, states that in the government district 
of Oppeln, the meat of hogs dead of erysipelas 
was quite commonly eaten by man without any bad 
consequences being noted. Straub reports that the consumption 
of such meat is harmless, even when the hogs are affected with 
erysipelas in an acute stage. The unavoidable conclusion from this 
enormous mass of experimental material is not altered by the fact 
that erysipelas bacilli are occasionally found in human excretions 
(Lubowski), and may be transmitted to man by inoculation (Hille- 
brandt, Casper). At the end of the '80's, Dieckerhoff, and after 



Stab culture of 
swine erysipelas 
bacilli in gelatin 
at a living room 
temperature (18° 
C), 4 days old. 
Natural size. 



690 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

him, Schinidt-Mulheini, expressly emphasized the fact of the harm- 
lessness of the meat of erysipelatous hogs, with special reference to 
the assumption of the harmful property of the meat in question, 
which prevailed in medical circles. The necessity for this is best 
shown by the " extracts from legal decisions concerning the food 
law," published by the Imperial Health Office. In these decisions, 
38 cases are reported in which swine erysipelas gave occasion to 
criminal procedures. In these 38 cases the meat was considered 
harmful in 25 cases and a spoiled food material in 9 cases. In 4 
cases the opinions of experts were directly contradictory. 

In agreement with the opinion rendered by Dieckerhoff, that 
the meat of erysipelatous hogs, as long as it is fresh and not passing 
into decomposition, is not harmful to human health, the Royal 
Prussian Scientific Deputation for the Medical Service, in an 
opinion rendered November 6, 1889, declared that proof was not 
forthcoming that the consumption of the meat of erysipelatous hogs 
was calculated to injure human health. 

We must particularly combat the erroneous belief that the 
bacterial nature of swine erysipelas, in and of itself, indicates the 
presence of a harmful property in the meat. This is by no means 
the case, since, according to all experience — infection in man has not 
been observed in a single case, even after handling erysipelatous 
meat — the erysipelas bacilli are harmless saprophytes for the 
human organism. 

In so far, therefore, as the meat of erysipelatous hogs does not 
give evidence of a badly spoiled condition as a result of advanced 
stage of the disease (intense reddening of the skin and of the 
panniculus adiposus, discoloration of the musculature, etc.), it may 
be sold as an inferior food material under declaration. This is to 
be permitted especially in cases where the animals were slaughtered 
in an early stage of the disease. Declaration is to be required, 
however, in all cases in the sale of erysipelatous meat, since it comes 
from badly diseased animals, and, in contrast with normal meat, 
possesses much poorer keeping qualities, even when the specific 
alterations are not especially pronounced. 

Regard for the prophylaxis of the bacillar erysipelas of hogs 
requires that the meat of erysipelatous animals shall be admitted 
to market only in a cooked or sterilized condition. For, while 
bacillar erysipelas is pre-eminently a stationary disease, restricted 
to certain localities, there is a possibility that an opportunity may 
be given for the dissemination of the disease through the unregu- 
lated sale of the raw meat of erysipelatous animals. It is imma- 



URTICARIA 691 

terial in this connection whether the infection of hogs takes place 
through the feed, the water used for washing the meat, or by other 
means. 

The Royal Saxon Commission for the Veterinary Service recom- 
mended, for preventing bacillar erysipelas, the compulsory boiling 
or pickling of the meat of animals subjected to emergency slaugh- 
ter and intended for sale. It has already been stated, however, 
that pickling does not have the effect ascribed to it by the Saxon 
Commission. Pickling may be permitted merely as a temporary 
method of treating meat in localities in which erysipelas occurs in 
an epizootic form and where, consequently, the utilization of the 
meat in a cooked condition is impossible. Furthermore 5 pickling 
in cities is unobjectionable, since here traffic in meat can not give 
rise to the dissemination of erysipelas bacilli in hog yards, as 
would be the case in country districts.* 

The Danish Government has ordered that erysipelatous hogs, 
against the consumption of which the veterinarian raises no objec- 
tion, shall be used for food only within the limits of the infected 
locality. In order to avoid the danger of dissemination of ery- 
sipelas by means of the meat of infected animals, it was also 
ordered that permission for the sale of hogs in an infected herd, 
including those which appeared to be healthy, shall be made 
dependant upon the proof of the normal character of various parts, 
including the heart. 

The restriction of the consumption of the meat to the infected 
localities is undoubtedly an effective means of preventing the dis- 
semination of erysipelas bacilli. In cases, however, in which 
emergency slaughter is performed on a large scale on account of 
erysipelas, the restriction is practically the same as an absolute 
destruction of the meat, since the owners, especially in summer, 
are not able t6 eat all of the meat. In such cases traffic may be 
conducted by permitting preliminary pickling, since pickled meat 
is eaten only in a cooked condition, and the erysipelas bacilli are 
destroyed after a short exposure in the pickling brine (page 685). 

(k) Urticaria. 

Nature. — Urticaria (" backsteinblattern," formerly also called 
" spot erysipelas of hogs ") is a disease of swine, characterized by 

* By proclamation of the Imperial Chancellor, September 8, 1898, compul- 
sory notification for erysipelas of hogs is required for the whole German. 
Empire. 



-692 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



the eruption of hemorrhagic, diamond-shaped patches. Simul- 
taneously there appear a rather serious disturbance of the general 
condition, inappetency and obstipation. The diamond-shaped 
patches are scattered irregularly over the body. Their color at 
first is dark-red (hemorrhages) ; later they become pale in the 
superficial layers, and still later, also in the deeper layers of the 
tissue. 

After slaughter the diamond-shaped patches subside somewhat 
and exhibit a pronounced rhombic form (Fig. 238). By means of 
an incision one may be convinced that the disease affects not only 

Fig. 238. 
I 




Skin of hog affected with urticaria, two-thirds natural size, a, rhombic 
hemorrhagic area ; b, area disappearing. 

the skin, but extends quite deeply into the panniculus adiposus. 
When the diamond-shaped patches begin to heal, they become 
round and lose their sharp delimitation from the surrounding 
tissue. 



Etiology. — Lorenz in Darmstadt demonstrated bacilli in the 
diamond-shaped patches which, according to Hessian usage, he 
designated as " backsteinblattern." They possessed great similar- 
ity with those of mouse septicemia and erysipelas. According to 
a private communication, Liipke, independently of Lorenz, suc- 
ceeded in producing urticaria-like eruptions by the intravenous 



URTICARIA 693 

inoculation of the bacilli of mouse septicemia. Simultaneously 
with Lorenz and Liipke, Jensen found bacilli in cases of urticaria. 
Jensen, however, did not consider them a distinct species, but held 
them to be merely erysipelatous bacilli. Jensen drew the conclu- 
sion that bacillar erysipelas of hogs can no* longer be considered 
as a simple process. According to our present knowledge, erysipe- 
las appears in several different, well-characterized forms, between 
which, however, transition forms sometimes occur. Jensen distin- 
guishes the following clinical forms of bacillar erysipelas: (1) 
" rouget blanc ;" (2) erysipelas in the narrower sense ; (3) diffuse 
necrosing inflammation of the skin (dry gangrene of the skin) ; (4) 
nettle fever (urticaria) ; (5) bacillar verrucose endocarditis. With 
regard to " rouget blanc " of the French, he remarks that this dis- 
ease does not often occur and runs its course very rapidly, without 
any red coloration. Even on the carcass, the skin in cases of 
"rouget blanc" possesses its normal character. 

Judgment. — The meat of hogs which have been affected with 
urticaria is everywhere admitted to the market after the removal 
of the diseased spots. As in cases of erysipelas, no injury to 
human health has been observed. In the more acute forms of the 
disease, the meat is to be treated as an inferior food material. 

For the rest, "meat inspectors will do well, on account of the 
depreciation of the value of the meat in by far the larger number of 
cases, to advise against emergency slaughter of animals affected 
with urticaria, since the disease commonly ends in recovery, 
especially if suitable therapeutic measures (administration of 
cathartics) are taken. 

Veterinary Police Treatment of Urticaria. — Opinions vary 
on the question whether urticaria, from a veterinary police stand- 
point, should be treated like erysipelas. Against the justification 
of such a procedure, the objection has been raised that erysipelas 
can not be produced by inoculation of urticaria material, and, 
furthermore, that veterinary police measures against urticaria are 
practically of no importance, and the value of such procedure in 
any case stands in no relation to the hardships which result from a 
veterinary police interference, This point of view receives strong 
support from the more recent investigations concerning the sapro- 
phytic occurrence of the organism of urticaria in the intestines of 
Jiealthy hogs (Olt, Jensen). 



694 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



(1) Swine Plague. 



Fig. 239. 



Nature and Occurrence. — Swine plague is an infectious dis- 
ease of hogs which is produced by micro-organisms similar to those 
of hemorrhagic septicemia of cattle (compare page 671). 

According to an observation of Loffler, swine plague may- 
appear as septicemia with serous infiltration of the subcutis. 
Usually, however, it occurs in the form of a multiple necrosing 
pneumonia. This is the genuine swine plague, as described and 
demonstrated bacteriological ly by Schiitz. As a rule, in addition to 
pneumonia, there exists a sero-fibrinous pleuritis and pericarditis. 
The latter affections, however, may constitute the only anatomical 
alterations of swine plague. Furthermore, a diffuse fibrinous 

pleuro-peritonitis (pectoral-abdominal 
form of swine plague, according to 
Graffunder) is observed, as a result of 
swine plague. 

During the acute stage one ob- 
serves general phenomena in the form 
of cloudy swelling of the parenchyma 
of the liver and kidneys, myocardium 
and skeletal musculature, associated 
under certain conditions with an en- 
largement of all the lymphatic glands 
of the body. Moreover, specific pneu- 
monia, like pneumonia of horses, is fre- 
quently ushered in by hematogenous 
icterus. 
The sequelae of swine plague possess special interest. After 
the acute inflammatory stage is passed, adhesions of the pulmonary 
pleura and pericardium with the pleura may occur, as well as 
adhesions of the pericardium with the epicardium. Moreover, the 
formation of caseous, purulent and dry necrotic foci (sequestrations) 
may take place in the lungs. 




Swine plague bacteria in a smear 
preparation from the cardiac 
blood of an infected mouse. 



Differential Diagnosis. — Upon a superficial examination dur- 
ing the acute stage, swine plague may be confused with swine 
erysipelas, especially since in cases of swine plague a reddening of 
the skin is observed. Acute swine plague, however, is distinguished 
from erysipelas with regard to its gross anatomy, by the lighter 
shade of the red coloration ; the restriction of the latter to the 



SWINE PLAGUE 695 

under parts of the body and the absence of splenic tumor and 
inflammatory phenomena in the intestines. Furthermore, in swine 
plague the hemorrhagic nephritis which is characteristic of 
erysipelas is wanting. Finally, however, the presence of the specific 
alterations in the lungs and on the serous membranes of the 
thoracic cavity in ordinary cases furnishes a demonstration of the 
presence of swine plague. 

In doubtful cases a decision must be reached by a bacteriologi- 
cal investigation. This is most usually accomplished by making 
streak cultures, or, if this is without result, by diagnostic inocula- 
tion. After inoculation with erysipelatous material, mice and 
pigeons die, rabbits develop merely typical erysipelas, and guinea 
pigs remain healthy. With swine plague, however, mice, rabbits, 
and guinea pigs die within one to three days after inoculation, 
while pigeons are not affected. Accordingly, in doubtful cases 
differentiation is made possible by merely inoculating guinea pigs 
or pigeons (Kitt). 

The pneumonia of swine plague is distinguished from catarrhal 
pneumonia by its fibrinous character, the lobular distension, the 
greater firmness of the diseased parts of the lungs and the finding 
of ovoid bacteria which are pathogenic for experimental animals, 
especially mice. 

According to Strose and Heine, catarrhal pneumonia occurs in 
one per cent, of the hogs slaughtered in Hanover, causes no patho- 
logical symptoms except coughing, and, as a rule, is restricted to 
a lobular affection of portion's of the anterior lobes of the lungs. In 
the bronchial glands of hogs affected with catarrhal pneumonia, 
ovoid bacteria could also be demonstrated, but, in contrast with the 
bacteria of swine plague, they were not pathogenic for mice. 

Judgment. — Fiedler and Bleisch are of the opinion that the 
meat of hogs affected with swine plague should be considered as 
injurious to health. They state, "We should not fail to mention 
that as long as the immunity of man toward the bacteria of swine 
plague has not been demonstrated, the pathogenic action shown in 
our experiments of the bacteria of swine plague toward different 
animal genera creates a fear of such action toward man. Especial 
care in the practice of meat inspection appears to be required with 
regard to this matter." Against this view is arrayed the experience 
of meat inspection. Quite aside from the fact that the pathogenic 
action of the micro-organism in experimental animals proves 
nothing with regard t~> man (page 114), before the discovery of the 



696 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

specific nature of swine plague, the meat of animals affected with 
the pectoral and intestinal form of the disease was always admitted 
to the market for the reason that the disease was considered as a 
simple pulmonary inflammation as a result of colds. Nothing, 
however, is known concerning injury to human health from eating 
such meat. To be sure, Pouchet and Zschokke reported observa- 
tions, according to which the meat of hogs affected with swine 
plague is said to have exercised harmful effects. These observa- 
tions, however, are not unexceptionable. In the case reported by 
Pouchet, the pork was in a state of decomposition, while the case 
of Zschokke is not clearly explained, and, as the author himself 
states, was perhaps to be considered as a case of poisoning from 
saltpeter. Prettner made inoculation experiments on mice with 
swine plague by rubbing infectious exudations from a hog into skin 
wounds. The result was negative. Furthermore, an infection of 
man from handling the altered organs of animals affected with 
swine plague has never occurred. 

If in spite of these facts all scruples against the admission of 
the meat to the market can not be overcome, at any rate no objec- 
tion can be raised against the sale of the meat when well boiled or 
sterilized, since we know that the bacteria of swine plague in 
pieces of meat which are not too thick are destroyed by exposure 
for one hour to a temperature of 80° C. In this way, also, the 
requirements of the veterinary police are satisfied. Such a pro- 
cedure, however, is necessary only in case of acute swine plague, 
since in this form bacteria are present in the blood and even in the 
meat. 

The meat of hogs affected with swine plague is to be excluded 
from the market as highly unfit for food when icterus is associated 
with an acute stage of specific inflammation of the pulmonary and 
costal pleura ; or when the animals are greatly emaciated in conse- 
quence of the disease.* 

(m) Hog* Cholera. 

Occurrence. — Hog cholera is a devastating infectious disease 
of hogs which has been brought into Europe from the New World. 
For nearly forty years the disease has been known in America 
under the names hog cholera and swine fever. The losses from this 
plague in the United States, for a period of a few years, amounted, 



* "With regard to compulsory notification of swine plague, see page 702. 



HOG CHOLERA 697 

according to Schiitz, to from twenty-five to thirty million dollars. 
In 1862 the disease was introduced into England and became 
stationary there. From England it was carried to Sweden, pre- 
sumably through the agency of breeding boars, and from thence 
was introduced into Denmark in 1887. Recently the disease has 
also appeared in an epizootic form in Germany, especially in 
Austria-Hungary. 

Bacteriology. — Hog cholera is produced by small, motile 

bacilli which accumulate in the organs in very characteristic masses 

like the typhoid bacillus. They are stainable with some difficulty. 

The staining is best accomplished with Lbffler's alkaline methylene 

blue solution, carbol fuchsin, and according to Kuhne's method 

(carbol methylene blue). Mice, guinea pigs and rabbits are killed 

by the bacilli within from two to twelve days 

either by inoculation or by feeding. Hogs like- * • 

wise die of pronounced cases of hog cholera after \ ' . t 

receiving the bacilli in food. In animals fed on ■ N , 

such material, an extensive enteritis is uniformly , % \ .. 

present. The mucous membrane of the small ~ - * 

intestine is reddened and congested. The intes- ^ 

tinal contents are mixed with blood. In chronic « . * 

cases of the disease there is a localization in the jjog e h lera bacillus 

inferior portion of the ileum and cecum in the from an a g ar culture 
„ / . . _.. 24 hours old. X 500 

lorni oi a simple hyperemia or diphtheritic diameters. 

destruction of the mucous membrane. In ex- 
perimental animals fed on hog cholera bacilli, the organisms are 
recovered particularly from the intestine, mesenteric glands, liver 
and spleen. The bacilli of hog cholera are commonly found in the 
blood of hogs only in cases which run a rapid course and even. 
then are not very abundant. 

Clinical Symptoms. — Hog cholera most frequently attacks 
young animals, sucking pigs and young pigs up to four months of 
age. The period of incubation is from five to twenty days. The 
pathological symptoms are inappetence, slight constipation and, 
later, a stinking diarrhea. Frequently red spots and a scab-like 
eczema appears on the ears, snout and in the region of the anus. 
A purulent conjunctivitis is frequently present. There is rapid 
emaciation and death takes place after five to eight days, or several 
weeks with progressive coma. In slight cases of the disease the 
perceptible pathological symptoms are less pronounced. The ani- 



C'.IX 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



inals which recover are stunted, fail to develop and die after linger- 
ing several months. 

Anatomical Findings. — Diphtheritic alterations on the tongue, 
pharynx, gums, and in the stomach ; catarrhal, croupous, diph- 



Fig. 241. 



a 




Mild ease of hog cholera, large intestine of a hog. 
a, croupous deposits; b, diphtheritic alterations of the lymph follicles. 

theritic and hemorrhagic inflammation in the duodenum and ileum. 
The chief alterations, however, are found in the large intestines. 




Acute case of hog cholera, a, incipient diphtheria of the lymph follicles; b, button- 
like caseous foci with walled borders ; c, erosions becoming cicatriced. 



The surface of the mucous membrane of the cecum, colon and rec- 
tum is covered with a croupous deposit (Fig. 241, a), or undergoes 
extensive diphtheritic alteration. The diphtheritic alteration usually 



HOG CHOLERA 



699 



Fig. 243. 



begins in the lymph follicles (Fig. 241, b) and changes them together 
with the surrounding tissue into button-like caseous foci of the size 
of peas or hazel nuts (Fig. 242, b). If the diphtheritic foci are 
sloughed off, irregular ulcers appear, which may become smoothly 
cicatrized (Fig. 242, c). The ileo-cecal valve is enlarged and case- 
fied in a quite pathognostic form. The lymph glands of the 
digestive apparatus are simultaneously swollen. The tumefied 
laryngeal and mesenteric glands 
may exhibit caseous deposits or 
may be totally casefied. Calci- 
fication is not observed in the 
caseous products of hog cholera. 
The respiratory organs of 
hogs affected with hog cholera 
may be perfectly healthy. On 
the other hand, a pneumonia 
due to bacteria of swine plague 
may be associated with hog 
cholera as a complication; the 
spleen is unaltered and the liver 
slightly colored upon cross sec- 
tion. The flabby kidneys exhibit 
a slightly-clouded cortical sub- 
stance. 

Etiology of Pneumonic and 
Necrotic Alterations in Hog 
Cholera. — Bang demonstrated 
that the different kinds of pneu- 
monia which occur in the chro- 
nic form of hog cholera are not 
produced by the hog cholera 
bacillus, but by the organism 
of swine plague, which Bang 
called the vacuole bacillus and 

which occurs also in the nasal mucus and in the lungs of healthy 
hogs. It was also demonstrated by Bang that in case of chronic 
hog cholera the so-called necrosis bacillus constantly occurs in 
addition to the hog cholera bacillus and the vacuole bacillus (page 
680). The vacuole bacillus is sometimes found in the intestinal 
contents of healthy hogs and may produce deep necrosing pro- 
cesses in the hog, in which the hog cholera bacillus has already 




Ho 



cholera. Deep necrotic processes fol- 
lowing secondary localization of the 
necrosis bacillus. 



700 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

caused a superficial croupous inflammation. In consequence of the 
caseation of the mucosa and muscularis, due to the action of the 
necrosis bacillus, the diseased parts of the intestine are modified 
into rigid tubes which do not collapse. If the process extends 
to the serosa, we have a fibrinous or fibrous peritonitis and, during 
the course of the latter, manifold adhesions between the folds of 
the intestines. According to Bang, the necrosis bacilli also cause 
the necrotic processes which are observed in the lungs. 

The investigations of Bang on the etiology of the complications 
which appear with hog cholera have been substantiated by the 
studies of Preisz, Karlinski and the author. 

In isolated cases of diphtheritic inflammation of the stomach 
and intestines in hogs, Kitt found the necrosis bacillus in unusual 
quantities in teased preparations and in sections, and he is, there- 
fore, of the opinion that diphtheritic anomalies in the digestive 
tract of hogs are produced only by the necrosis bacillus and that 
hog diseases may occur in Germany in a sporadic and epizootic 
form which closely resemble the American disease clinically and 
anatomically, but, from an etiological standpoint, have nothing to 
do with the latter. 

Diagnosis and Diffeeential Diagnosis. — The slaughter find- 
ings in animals which are affected with hog cholera are, as a rule, 
so pronounced and characteristic of the disease that the recognition 
of hog cholera in ordinary cases should present no difficulty what- 
ever to the expert entrusted with the practice of meat inspection. 
It is only in cases with a peracute course, in which there is merely 
a bloody inflammation of the stomach and intestines, a swelling of 
the lymphatic glands with petechise in them and the kidneys, that 
the disease may be confused with swine erysipelas. Such cases, 
however, are distinguished from erysipelas by the fact that the 
spleen is not swollen and the kidneys do not show the symptoms 
of hemorrhagic nephritis. Moreover, the erysipelas bacilli are 
wanting in the blood and parenchyma, while, on the other hand, the 
hog cholera bacilli may be demonstrated in the swolleu mesenteric 
glands, by a teased preparation or a culture. In inoculation experi- 
ments, it should be remembered that the hog cholera bacilli are 
comparatively of slight virulence for small experimental animals 
and that, therefore, the animals may die of intercurrent diseases if 
other organisms more pathogenic for the experimental animal con- 
cerned are accidentally present in the organic material used in, 
making the inoculation. 



HOG CHOLERA 701 

The distinction between intestinal diphtheria of hogs (Kitt) 
due merely to the necrosis bacilli and the diphtheria of hog cholera 
may be made evident only by means of a thorough bacteriological 
investigation, especially of the mesenteric glands. Since during the 
course of hog cholera caseous alterations arise in the alimen- 
tary tract and its lymphatic glands, there may be a confusion of 
this disease with alimentary tuberculosis. Hog cholera, however, 
is distinguished from alimentary tuberculosis by the fact that it is- 
ushered in with acute alterations of the mucous membrane and 
exhibits only in rare cases pronounced alterations of the lymphatic 
glands in contrast with tuberculosis. In tuberculosis of hogs, the 
mucous membrane, even in the acute cases of the alimentary form,, 
are, as a rule, without alterations, while the corresponding lymph 
glands are always specifically altered to a high degree. The 
caseous alterations of the mucous membranes in tuberculosis are, 
moreover, not caused by croup or diphtheria, but represent ulcers, 
the bases of which consist of disintegrating tubercles (Fig. 243). 

A further distinction between hog cholera and tuberculosis is 
found in the fact that in cases of natural infection, the former pro- 
duces caseation only in the alimentary tract, while tuberculosis 
through generalization of the process may cause caseation in most 
of the internal organs, especially in the lungs, liver, spleen, bones, 
joints, sheaths of the tendons and the lymphatic glands which 
belong to these organs. 

Finally, the caseation which appears in the lymphatic glands 
of the digestive tract in cases of hog cholera may be distinguished 
from tuberculous alterations of those structures by observing the 
following criteria : 

(a). Hog cholera- produces either a partial or total caseation of 
the lymphatic glands. The caseous material deposited in them is 
grayish-yellow and in cases of partial caseation is readily separable 
from the surrounding tissue of lymphatic glands. Tuberculosis 
always begins with partial caseation at several points ; for it is asso- 
ciated with the pre-existence of numerous small foci or tubercles. 

(&) The caseations which appear in the lymphatic glands of 
the digestive organs in case of hog cholera do not become calcified. 
In cases of tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands of hogs, on the 
other hand, calcification is uniformly associated with caseation. 

(c) In cases of partial caseation of the lymphatic glands as a 
result of hog cholera, the tissue of the lymphatic glands which lies 
in contact with the caseous deposits commonly exhibits no gross 
alterations. 



702 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



In tuberculosis, as shown by Johne, there are always small, 
perfectly transparent, grayish tubercles, which may be clouded 
in the center, in the immediate neighborhood of the caseous 



areas. 



Fig. 244. 



These macroscopic criteria are more important in the differen- 
tiation of hog cholera from tuberculosis than those which may be 
secured by bacteriological investigations. For it is a well known 
fact that in old caseous areas the bacteria of hog cholera as well as 
those of tuberculosis frequently can not be demonstrated, by 
microscopic investigation, but only by inoculation. 

Bang and Jensen have called attention to the fact that the 
normal condition of the ileo-cecal valve may lead to confusion with 

hog cholera. In the ducts of the 
glands of the ileo-cecal valve, yellow 
cloudy plugs are frequently observed 
which on superficial examination 
might be mistaken for caseous foci. 
These plugs, which arise by retention 
of the secretion of the glands, may 
be readily pressed out from the ducts 
of the glands without losing any of 
their substance (Fig. 244, a). Fur- 
thermore, the mucous membrane of 
the ileo-cecal valve itself is without 
any alteration. 




Ileo-cecal valve of a hog. 

a, seat of retention plugs which may 

give riss to confusion with 

hog cholera. 



Judgment. — A decree of the 
Royal Prussian Ministers for Agri- 
culture and Education, of July 9, 
1894, declares on the basis of the 
expressed opinions of the Technical 
Deputation for Veterinary Service 
and the Scientific Deputation for the Medical Service, that the 
meat of hogs which have been subjected to emergency slaughter 
on account of swine plague or hog cholera is not injurious to human 
health. The decree prescribes the following procedure for the meat 
in question. 

" The meat, however, is to be sold under declaration and in a 
cooked condition, unless it is eaten on the premises where the 
disease occurs. The affected internal organs, together with their 
appendices, are to be buried or burned. The carcasses are to be 
excluded from the market but admitted for technical utilization in 



FOWL CHOLEEA 703 

the case of hogs in which sequelae, such as icterus or peritonitis, 
have developed."* 



APPENDIX. 

The Most Important Infectious Diseases of Fowls. 

In connection with the discussion of the diseases of the larger 
domesticated animals, the two most important diseases of useful 
domesticated fowls, fowl cholera and diphtheria of fowls, may be 
briefly considered. 

(a) Fowl Cholera. 

Occurrence. — Fowl cholera occurs in chickens, geese, ducks, 
pigeons, turkeys and pheasants and causes enormous losses during 
the outbreaks. The disease has nothing in common with cholera in 
man except the name. 

Etiology. — Fowl cholera is . produced by bacteria which, in 
respect of their morphology, cultural and pathogenic properties for 
experimental animals, agree with the organisms of hemorrhagic 
septicemia of cattle, swine plague and rabbit septicemia (compare 
page 671). 

Symptoms and Anatomical Findings. — The disease is charac- 
terized by its rapid, fatal course. The birds die suddenly with 
apoplectiform symptoms, or show signs of illness for several hours 
or three days at most. The internal temperature is considerably 
elevated. Upon a post-mortem examination one finds a hemorrhagic 
inflammation of the small intestine and a chocolate colored intes- 
tinal content ; occasionally, also, croupous enteritis, numerous 
hemorrhages under the epicardium and a congested or inflammatory 
condition of the lung tissue. 

Since the internal organs of diseased and dead fowls are care- 
fully removed before sale, it is not always an easy matter to 



* By promulgation of the Imperial Chancellor, September 8, 1898, compul- 
sory notification of swine plague, hog cholera and swine erysipelas, in the sense 
of Section 9 of the Imperial Animal Plague Law, is introduced for the whole 
German Empire until further notice, on the basis of Sec. 10 2 of the law. 



704 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

demonstrate the presence of fowl cholera in the carcasses brought 
to market. Nevertheless, in fowls which are slaughtered during the 
agony or which die of the disease cadaveric spots of a dark blue 
color are commonly found on the inferior surface of the abdomen 
and on the internal surface of the thigh. The skeletal musculature 
may appear intact in cases of the disease with an acute course. As 
a rule, however, it is rich in blood, and, under certain conditions, 
may be affected with cloudy swelling or may undergo fatty and wax- 
like degeneration. 

Differential Diagnosis. — For confirming the diagnosis it is 
desirable to examine a drop of blood from the interior of the mus- 
culature for the presence of the fowl cholera bacteria, which are 0.3 
to 1 /t in length (Fig. 245). Furthermore, Kitt recommends, as a 

convenient means of confirming the 
FlG> 345- diagnosis, the inoculation of a pigeon 

by introducing a drop of blood into the 
musculature of the breast. In cases of 
fowl cholera, the animals die after 
twelve or at most forty-eight hours. 
The disease may be transmitted by 
feeding, with the same fatal result. 

Judgment. — The infectiousness of 

fowl cholera is of a limited order. It 

Smear preparation from the car.- i s transmissible to fowls, rabbits and 
cliac blood of a pigeon infected . ~ . . ,. ,, , ,. 

with fowl cholera, x 500 diam. mice. Guinea pigs die after inoculation 

only in exceptional cases. In these 
animals the result of inoculation is, as a rule, local, as well as in 
horses and sheep. According to the investigations of Perroneito, 
Marchiafava and Celli, as well as those of Kitt, dogs and cats may 
with impunity eat large quantities of the raw carcasses of fowls 
which have died of cholera. 

The behavior of man toward the bacteria of fowl cholera 
requires further elucidation in certain respects. Marchiafava and 
Celli assert that the bacteria in question may produce abscesses in 
small skin wounds. This, however, is of little importance. More- 
over, according to Zurn, one person was made seriously ill by eat- 
ing the meat of choleraic chickens. These observations, however, 
are opposed to numerous others, according to which even the con- 
sumption of the meat of fowls dead of cholera was without harm to 
the consumers. 




DIPHTHERIA OF FOWLS 705 

Perroncito frequently observed servants in his laboratory eat- 
ing, in a cooked condition, the chickens which had died of the dis- 
ease, and without experiencing the slightest harm. Likewise, dis- 
eased chickens were eaten by the farmers without bad results, 
during the great prevalence of the disease in Casalgrassa and in the 
Campagna near Rome. According to Kitt, the same statement is 
true or the neighborhood of Munich. 

In rendering a decision concerning the admission of the meat 
to the market, it is an important consideration that the disease may 
be disseminated by means of the carcasses of dead or slaughtered 
chickens.* The fact just mentioned is sufficient to justify the exclu- 
sion from the market of fowls affected with cholera. Moreover, 
these carcasses, on account of the objective alterations of their sub- 
stance, frequently exhibit the character of a high degree of unfitness 
for food. 

The sale of the meat of fowls which are slaughtered at the 
beginning of the disease may be unhesitatingly permitted after pre- 
vious cooking ; for Kitt found that the bacteria of fowl cholera lose 
their virulence after exposure for three-fourths of an hour to a 
temperature of 45° to 50° C. 

(b) Diphtheria of Fowls. 

According to the investigations of Friedberger and Frohner, we 
have to distinguish two forms of so-called diphtheria of chickens : 
one form, probably, produced by bacteria and another form pro- 
duced by protozoa. The probably bacterial form of roup is, accord- 
ing to Friedberger and Frohner, next to fowl cholera, the most fre- 
quent and most dangerous plague of fowls. It attacks chickens 
and pigeons, and usually younger individuals of improved races. 
The essential symptoms of this form of avian diphtheria are 
croupous, diphtheritic inflammation upon the mucous membrane of 
the mouth and pharyngeal cavity, or of the respiratory passages 
(nasal cavity, larynx, trachea), of the eyes, or alimentary tract. The 
local phenomena are introduced by inflammatory reddening. There- 
upon one observes " ropy " and, later, caseous deposits. The clini- 



* Notification is required for fowl cholera, according to the proclamation of 
the Imperial Chancellor's Office, in the Grand Duchies of Baden, Hessen, Meck- 
lenburg-Schwerin, Saxe-Weimar ; in the Duchies of Anhalt, Brunswick, Gotha, 
Saxe-Aitenburg, Saxe-Meiningen ; and in the Principalities of Waldeck-Pyrmont 
and Lippe-Detmold. 



706 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

cal symptoms vary according as there is exclusive or predominating 
localization of the inflammatory phenomena. 

Upon post-mortem examination one finds, in addition to the local 
alterations, emaciation, anemia, cloudy swelling of the parenchyma 
and hemorrhages under the epicardium. In the croupous diph- 
theritic deposits upon the mucous membrane, Loffler demonstrated 
a bacillus which was pathogenic for mice, and which, when rein- 
oculated into two pigeons, produced a diphtheria of the oral mucous 
membrane. 

Protozoa are claimed by Rivolta and Silvestri as being the 
cause of one form of avian diphtheria. This form, according to 
Friedberger and Frohner, is distinguished from the presumably 
bacillar form by its ready transmissibility, the milder course of the 
disease, and the frequent extension of the process from the oral 
mucous membrane upon the general integument. Upon the latter 
organ, especially on the featherless parts of the body, from miliary 
to bean-sized neomorphs (epithelioma, according to Bollinger) 
appear. These at first are gray, often with a pearl-like sheen, and 
firm. Later they are covered with a scab and become more elevated. 

In the proliferating epithelial cells of the epithelioma, highly 
refractive homogeneous bodies appear, which stain easily with picro- 
carmin, and are thereby differentiated from the epithelial cells, 
which stain brownish-red. 

Judgment. — Practically the same statement holds true for the 
bacterial form of avian diphtheria as was made concerning the 
so-called diphtheria of calves. The form of diphtheria of fowls pro- 
duced by protozoa occupies a special position in contrast with this 
disease, for it is a local disease. The general symptoms in this 
form are due simply to the mechanical hindrances to ingestion and 
respiration (compare page 523). 

With regard to the bacterial form of roup, Friedberger and 
Frohner mention a fact of great importance in the judgment of the 
meat : viz., that they themselves examined thousands of roupy 
chickens and pigeons without becoming infected in a single case or 
without having observed infection in other persons. This fact can 
"be considered as conclusive evidence of the non-transmissibility of 
the bacterial form of avian diphtheria to man. Nevertheless, the 
meat of chickens and pigeons which were infected with bacterial 
diphtheria, in cases where a disturbance of the nutritive condition 
is present, is to be considered as at least spoiled, if not highly 
unfit for food. 



DISEASES OF FISH 707 

An opinion of the Royal Prussian Deputation for the Medical 
Service, of December, 1886, recommends the prohibition of the sale 
of slaughtered diphtheritic birds and calves, " although the state- 
ments of Dr. Emmerich (who claimed to have observed the trans- 
mission of avian diphtheria to man) can not be considered as scien- 
tific common property." Since the promulgation of this opinion, 
however, twelve years have passed without bringing any support 
from observations or experiments to the recommended procedure. 

Othee Fowl Plagues. — Belfanti and Zenoni described a plague 
of fowls which caused great losses in Lombardy. It appeared with 
localization in the respiratory passages (pneumo-pleurisy, pericar- 
ditis) or in the alimentary tract ^enteritis with splenic tumor). In 
both cases there were also ecchymoses on the pericardium. Bel- 
fanti and Zenoni isolated from the exudations a micro-organism 
which appeared in the form of oval bacteria and long bacilli. 

Recently an intestinal plague of fowls has appeared in Ger- 
many, which has nothing in common with fowl cholera, from an 
etiological standpoint, but is equally as destructive as the latter. 
The etiology of the new plague is still doubtful. 

Gabritschewski reported concerning a spirochete septicemia of 
geese which appeared in an epizootic form. The disease was 
ushered in with fever and diarrhea, and resulted in death in 80 per 
cent, of the cases. At the outbreak of the pathological symptoms, 
the spirochetes were demonstrable in the blood ; later only in the 
bone marrow. 

Infectious Diseases of Fish. —According to Maurizio, who com- 
piled the literature relating to the fungous diseases of fish and spawn 
Unger first described a fungous disease of fish which was probably 
caused by Achlya and Saprolegnia. A. Sticker reported concerning 
fish plagues in the West Indies. Goeppert demonstrated Leptomitus 
lacteus as the cause of an infection of a stream in upper Silesia. 
Huxley and Murray described a disease of fish, which, during the 
years 1877 to 1882, became distributed throughout a number of 
streams of England and Scotland. Walentowicz described a disease 
of carp in Kaniow and Raciborski determined the pathogenic fungi 
as Achlya noivicki and Saprolegnia monoica. Achyla prolifera and 
Saprolegnia fero were demonstrated by Blanc and Schnetzler to be 
the cause of a disease of pike in Lake Geneva in 1887. This fungus 
is said to have caused a fish disease in the State of New Jersey 
(Gerard). Maurizio himself frequently observed Leptomitus lacteus 



708 INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

on fish and spawn. Finally, attention is called to a bacterial dis- 
ease of fish.described by Emmerich and Weigel which consisted of 
a furunculosis resulting in septico-pyemia. Wyss examined fish 
which were dying in large numbers in Lake Zurich. On various 
parts of the body the fish exhibited circumscribed, pale-yellow 
spots, varying in size from a silver quarter to a silver dollar. The 
scales were wanting on the spots or were easily rubbed off. In the 
blood, bile, liver and intestinal contents, micro-organisms were 
found which were not found in healthy fish. The organisms were 
easily cultivated by adding small quantities of the cultures to the 
water in which fish were living and the disease was easily trans- 
mitted to the fish. Fish thus affected soon died with all the 
pathological symptoms which were observed in cases of spontaneous 
infection. The micro-organism isolated from the diseased fish was 
transmissible by inoculation to rabbits, guinea pigs and mice. 
Fischer and Enoch isolated a rod-shaped micro-organism from the 
cardiac blood of a carp which had died, presumably from contami- 
nation of the water and which was conspicuous on account of the 
presence of numerous external hemorrhages. The micro-organism 
was highly pathogenic for cold and warm blooded animals (in 
corresponding quantities also per os). The rods in cultures as well 
as in the animal organism produced a toxin (albumose) which 
caused paresis of the extremities, hemorrhages and paralysis of 
the respiratory and vasomotor centers. The toxin was destroyed 
by boiling. 

Infectious Diseases of Crayfish — Crayfish Plague. — Hofer 
succeeded in cultivating a bacillus from the muscle meat of diseased 
crabs, which was 1 to 1.5 /* long, .25 fj, thick, rouuded at both ends 
and actively motile. The bacillus is stained by Gram's method, 
liquefies gelatine and blood serum, and in gelatine plate cultures 
develops a conspicuous odor of semen and a honey-like odor on 
blood serum. This micro-organism, as demonstrated also by Weber, 
kills crabs upon injection even in quantities of 1-1,000 of a Pfeiffer's 
oese, with symptoms of crab plague (casting of the appendages and 
the appearance of spasms). 

Spot Disease of Crayfish. — In a spot disease of crayfish, which is 
characterized by the appearance of black spots on the caripace, 
Happich found a thread fungus {Oidium astaci) to be the pathogenic 
organism. This fungus grows on the ordinary bacterial nutrient 
media, and, like Odium lactis, forms a snow-white aerial mycelium.. 



CONCLUDING REMABKS 709 



Concluding Remarks on Diseases of Food Animals Which 
Have Not Been Considered. 

In the preceding discussion, only the more important diseases 
of food animals have received a detailed consideration. Other dis- 
eases, less important from a standpoint of meat inspection, may be 
omitted, especially since a sanitary police judgment with regard to 
them is not a difficult matter, according to the analogy of the groups 
of diseases to which they belong (organic diseases, blood anomalies, 
zooparasite diseases, intoxication diseases and infectious diseases). 
"With regard to diseases of unknown or imperfectly understood 
nature, however, compare the following chapter concerning 
""Emergency Slaughter " and " Meat Poisoning." * 



*In connection with the chapter on " Infectious Diseases," it should also be 
noted that a decisive significance in the judgment of meat was formerly attrib- 
uted to fever when it had been demonstrated in food animals before slaughter. 
This standpoint, as is apparent from the discussions in Chapter XII, i^ no longer 
tenable. It is not the fever which should determine the judgment on the meat, 
hut the disease which causes the fever, since fever is a symptom of numerous 
diseases, which, from a sanitary standpoint, are to be judged differently. 



XIII. 

EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER ON ACCOUNT OF SERIOUS 
INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND MEAT POISONING 
—ACCIDENTS— DEFECTIVE BLEEDING- 
NATURAL DEATH. 



1. — General Discussion of Emergency Slaughter on Account 
of Serious Infectious Diseases. 

The most important and most difficult part of the duties of 
meat inspecters is the rendering of opinions on emergency slaugh- 
ter. It is the most important part for the reason that emergency 
slaughter, if we disregard so-called accidents, is concerned exclu- 
sively with seriously diseased animals, which, on account of 
the nature of their disease, must, in the large proportion of cases, 
be excluded from the market. The following figures furnish an 
instructive conception of the extent of condemnation in emergency 
slaughter as compared with ordinary commercial slaughtering : 

In the Grand Duchy of Baden in the year 1889, 205 large 
animals were condemned among 129,619 slaughtered in the ordinary 
way ; while 923 out of 6,139 animals subjected to emergency slaugh- 
ter were condemned, or 100 times as large a percentage. Moreover, 
127 small animals out of 392,775 slaughtered in the ordinary manner 
were excluded from the market, while 107 out of only 1,451 animals 
subjected to emergency slaughter were condemned, or about 245 
times as high a percentage. 

The total number of cases of emergency slaughter in Germany 
is estimated by Lydtin at 160,000 per annum, or 1 per cent, of the 
total number of animals. 

It is not, however, merely the considerable value which we 
have to save or destroy in emergency slaughter that makes the work 
of expert inspectors so important in such cases, but the hygienic 
side is important to a still greater degree. " The experience of the 
last decade in the line of epidemics as a result of eating the meat of 

710 



GENERAL DISCUSSION 711 

diseased animals has shown beyond question that at least four- 
fifths of these numerous cases of diseases are connected with, 
so-called emergency slaughter. This fact, to which attention was 
called by Bollinger, is, more than anything else, calculated to set in 
the proper light the great importance of expert inspection in cases 
of emergency slaughter." 

In the Grand Duchy of Baden, from 1888 to 1891, the following 
numbers of animals, according to Lydtin, furnished meat which was 
injurious to health : 

Per thousand Per thousand 

cases of cases of 

ordinary slaughter emergency slaughter 

In large animals 1.6 cases. 128 cases. 

In calves ,... .4 " 4.9 " 

In sheep 2 " 20.2 " 

In goats . 8- " .72.5 " 

In hogs 3 " 63.4 " 

In horses 14.2 " 44.4 '.' 

The difficulties in renderiug an opinion in emergency slaughter 
are based on the fact that we do not, by any means, have to do 
always with typical diseases, but in many cases with diseases of 
doubtful origin (cryptogenetic sepsis). The difficulty in diagnosing 
these cases has already been referred to in the section on " Septi- 1 
cemia " (page 569). 

Judgment. —In the greater number of diseases which give occa- 
sion to emergency slaughter, the formulation of general view points 
for rendering judgment is not possible, except to a limited extent. 
However, it should be emphasized that, on account of its connec- 
tion with cases of meat poisoning, the meat of all animals subjected 
to emergency slaughter is to be considered as highly suspicious, 
and is to be subjected to a more careful inspection than the meat 
of animals slaughtered in the ordinary manner. Moreover, the 
meat of animals subjected to emergency slaughter, on account of 
infectious disease, and which is admitted for human consumption, 
should not be admitted to the market freely, but should be sold 
only under declaration. Compulsory declaration is indicated 
especially for the reason that in animals subjected to emergency 
slaughter on account of infectious disease, bleeding is, as a rule, 
defective. The keeping quality of the meat, as stated in another 
place (page 130), is thereby affected. It is also a fact, learned 
from experience, that the meat of animals subjected to emergency 
slaughter readily passes into decomposition. This bad quality of 



712 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

the meat from cases of emergency slaughter must be made known 
to the purchaser, in order that he may eat it in as fresh a condi- 
tion as possible, and in order that he may avoid the injurious 
effects which may be produced by eating such meat after it has 
been preserved for a long time, or made up into sausage. 

The materials which served to form the technical basis of the 
draft of the food law contained the following statement on this 
point: "It can not be considered as a desirable thing to prohibit 
absolutely the slaughtering of diseased animals. If, according to 
experience, the meat of these animals is harmless, slaughter should 
be permitted, with the proviso, however, that if the meat has suf- 
fered a depreciation of its nutritive value or keeping quality in con- 
sequence of the disease of the animal in question, this fact must be 
brought to the knowledge of the purchaser ; that is, the meat can 
be sold only as inferior or diseased meat. Otherwise, the purchaser 
might be deceived, or might injure his health. The latter case 
might occur if meat without good keeping qualities should, without 
knowledge of this fact, be kept by the purchaser for a certain period 
before eating, like ordinary wholesome meat, and should thereby 
become spoiled." 

As stated by Bollinger, the District Veterinarian, Dinter, in 
Saxony made the worthy suggestion that legal regulations should 
require that animals subjected to emergency slaughter should not 
be dealt in by the ordinary butchers, but should be sold in the com- 
munity in question under police control. In this manner deception 
of the consumers by the meat dealers would be effectively pre- 
vented. 

The most important duty of inspectors in case of emergency 
slaughter is the determination of animals the meat of which must 
be considered as dangerous to health, and which, for this reason, 
must be absolutely excluded from the market. For the proper ful- 
filment of this duty, an accurate knowledge of the causes of meat 
poisoning thus far observed is indispensable, because these concrete 
cases furnish the inspector the best criteria for determining the 
sanitary police method of procedure in cases of emergency slaughter. 

2. — Meat Poisoning. 

Cases of meat poisoning (sepsis intestinalis, according to Bol- 
linger ; infectious enteritis, according to Gaffky) have occupied the 
attention of the medical world for several decades. More particu- 
larly, Bollinger has repeatedly called attention to the great impor- 



MEAT POISONING 713 

tance of meat poisoning in human hygiene. In an address deliv- 
ered at the fourth session of the German Society for Public 
Hygiene in Diisseldorf, in Jane, 1876, Bollinger first emphasized the 
fact that the pyemise and septicemia of our food animals are more 
important, from the standpoint of human health, than anthrax and 
glanders, since the former are much more frequent than the latter 
and since the toxins of pyemia and septicemia are not destroyed 
by cooking. Four years later, in an address before a medical 
society in Munich, Bollinger stated that this assertion had unfor- 
tunately been only too well confirmed, for, since that time, eleven 
extensive outbreaks of meat poisoning with about 1,600 cases had 
been observed, the greater part of which were of septic or pyemic 
nature. 

In the latter address, Bollinger collected the literature relating 
to cases of meat poisoning up to 1880 and reviewed this literature 
in a critical manner. Shortly before this address, Siedamgrotsky 
(Lectures for Veterinary Surgeons, third series) laid the founda- 
tion for comparative investigations by means of his work on meat 
poisoning. This work is contained in Bollinger's address, so that 
we may consider the latter as a comprehensive treatment of the 
question up to the year 1880. 

Bollinger cites the following cases : 

1. The outbreak of meat poisoning in Fluntern, Switzerland, 
in the year 1867, in which 27 persons became ill after eating veal. 
The calf in question was five days old and had " yellow water " in 
the joints. The chief symptoms in the human patients were vomi- 
tion of thin, fluid, green masses, watery stools and great depres- 
sion. These symptoms were frequently preceded by chills ; later 
the temperature became normal or subnormal. Furthermore, 
stupor was observed, combined with delirium, or headache, and 
vertigo in the milder cases. Recovery took place slowly and 
required from two to four weeks in twelve individuals. One patient 
died, a man 52 years of age, who had eaten large quantities of the 
improperly cooked and, in part, almost raw liver. A post-mortem 
examination of this man disclosed petechias under the skin and 
under the epicardium, in the kidneys, intestines and lungs. 

Bollinger assumes that the calf was affected with congenital 
sepsis or pyemia. According to the experience of the writer, the 
symptoms resemble those of septic calf lameness, which may 
appear within a few days after birth. 

2. Outbreak of meat poisoning in L. Bregenz, in 1874, after 
eating the meat of a cow which had been subjected to emergency 



714 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

slaughter five days after parturition, on account of injuries to the 
sexual organs and retention of the after-birth, with putrid decom- 
position. After eating this meat, or the broth made from it, 51 
persons were affected, either immediately, or in from 11 to 48 
hours. Those who ate the liver were affected most violently. 
"Watery stools of a green color, retching, headache, vertigo and 
weakness in the limbs were the milder symptoms. In severe cases, 
vomiting, coliky pains, foul-smelling discharges, inability to stand > 
a burning sensation in the oral cavity, ringing in the ears, cholera- 
like feeling, flabby skin and weak pulse. The diarrhea persisted 
for fourteen days ; the weakness and depression, however, persisted 
longer. No death. 

3. Meat poisoning in Griessbeckerzell in May, 1876. The 
noxious meat came from a cow which had been slaughtered four- 
teen days after parturition and which was affected with prolapsus 
uteri and ichorous metritis. Twenty-two persons were affected 
with acute cerebral symptoms and other symptoms resembling 
those of cholera. Slow convalescence (two to five weeks). Cooked 
meat and cooked sausage were also injurious. A twenty-year-old 
girl, who ate of the dressed meat along with her family, remained 
well, while all of the others were affected. The girl had drunk 
brandy before and after eating the poisonous sausage. 

4. Meat poisoning in Sonthofen, after eating the meat of a two- 
year-old heifer which had been subjected to emergency slaughter 
while in a moribund condition on account of puerperal sepsis. 
Contrary to the orders of a veterinarian, the ill-smelling meat waa 
sold to a neighbor. Among the ten persons who ate of it, seven 
became ill. Recovery of all these persons after four days. 

It is worthy of note that the unwholesome meat exhibited a 
high degree of decomposition within four days. 

Bollinger emphasizes the fact that in the cases of meat poison- 
ing above enumerated, their connection with the diseases of food ani- 
mals is self-evident.* This can not be claimed for other cases of 



* The observations of Gerlach are also of interest, in which the connection 
between the diseases of food animals and cases of meat poisoning is obvious. 

A fresh milch cow received a severe injury of the udder from a scythe ; the 
wound assumed a gangrenous character and the animal was killed after being 
seriously ill for two days. Although Gerlach forbade the consumption of the 
meat, the herder removed a piece, and he and his family ate it. All were 
affected with general illness, vomiting, diarrhea and extensive weakness. 

After eating the meat of another cow, which became very sick after parturi- 
tion and which had been subjected to emergency slaughter 36 hours later, 46- 
persons became ill ; one patient died. The district physician, who did not believe 



MEAT POISONING 715 

meat poisoning. In the cases enumerated below, the virulent char- 
acter of certain viscera was so apparent that it was necessary to 
assume a local affection of these organs. In this group Bollinger 
includes the following epidemics : 

1. Meat poisoning in Lahr, in August, 1866. The cause was 
the meat of a cow which had eaten but little for several weeks, 
passed bloody urine, and was so emaciated and weak that it was 
necessary to haul the animal in a wagon to the place of slaughter. 
The meat of the cow is alleged to have had a good appearance 
and to have possessed no disagreeable odor. Schwartenmagen was 
prepared from the meat of the cow, mixed with pork which was 
known to be of good quality. After the consumption of this pre- 
paration, all persons who had eaten of it were affected, about 70 
in number, including also those who had eaten only a few ounces. 
The innkeeper who prepared the schwartenmagen and ate of it, 
together with three other persons, died. The fact should be 
emphasized that the schwartenmagen appeared to be of good 
quality in every respect, and that the consumption of the meat of 
the cow in all .other methods of preparation was without bad 
effects. Pathological symptoms : Summer-cholera with nervous 
phenomena, including dilation of the pupils, with diminished sen- 
sibility of the iris toward light in severe cases. 

Bollinger concludes that the schwartenmagen acquired its 
peculiar harmful property from the kidneys, which were probably 
utilized in the preparation of this material. 

2. Meat poisoning in Garmisch, June, 1878. Seventeen per- 
sons became ill after eating liver noodles and tripe which, contrary 
to the directions of the meat inspector, had been prepared from 
the viscera of a cow subjected to emergency slaughter. The cow 
had been affected with hepatic degeneration and "peritonitis" 
(according to Bollinger, perhaps ichorous peritonitis). After about 
4.8 hours, headache, chills, summer-cholera, visual disturbances, etc. 

The meat, or skeletal musculature, was very slightly or not at 
all toxic. 

3. Meat poisoning in St. Georgen, near Friedrichshafen, from 
the consumption of the meat of a cow subjected to emergency 
slaughter. At first this animal had a defective appetite, followed 
by a pronounced fluid, ill-smelling diarrhea. Eighteen persons 
were affected. The effects were manifested most quickly and vio- 

in any connection between the outbreak of poisoning and the consumption of 
the meat, ate some of the meat himself in order to prove the accuracy of his 
view. He became dangerously sick as a result. 



716 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

lently after eating leberspatzen. Period of incubation, two to three 
hours. 

In conclusion, Bollinger describes the outbreak of meat poison- 
ing in Nordhausen, which occurred in June, 1876, as a result of eat- 
ing the meat of a cow slaughtered while in a moribund condition. 
In all, about 400 persons were affected, one of whom died. 

The cow is said to have been sick for four or five days and 
finally to have become very weak. Yery malodorous feces were 
passed. Most of the patients ate raw sirloin or partly fried meat 
cakes. The one patient who died ate only raw sirloin. A large 
number of the persons who ate the meat in a boiled or roasted 
condition remained healthy. 

The outbreak of poisoning in Nordhausen was attributed by 
the district physician, Dr. Gasenick, and by Gerlach — by the latter, 
however, with reserve — to anthrax, an assumption which Bollinger 
rightly rejected. The case of meat poisoning in Nordhausen com- 
pletely agrees with regard to symptoms with other cases of meat 
poisoning produced by known and unknown micro-organisms. 

An outbreak of meat poisoning in Wurzen (July, 1877) greatly 
resembled that at Nordhausen. In the course of this outbreak, 206 
persons were affected after eating the meat of a cow which ten 
"weeks post partum became affected with mammitis and paralysis 
of the posterior extremities, accompanied with a high fever. The 
animal was slaughtered while in a moribund condition. The meat 
was eaten partly raw, partly cooked and partly as sausage or 
pickled meat during the four days following slaughter. Some of 
the meat possessed a bad odor, was of a grayish color, and olea- 
ceous. The symptoms in some cases were exceedingly like those 
of cholera. Six deaths. The most serious cases appeared after 
eating the raw meat. "The degree of decomposition corresponded 
with the acuteness of the disease." Bollinger assumes that the 
original septic toxin had undergone a post-mortem increase of 
virulence. 

The other cases of meat poisoning described by Bollinger in 
connection with the two last named epidemics may be dismissed 
briefly. These are the outbreaks which occurred in Lockwitz and 
Niedersedlitz in July, 1879. Forty persons were affected after eat- 
ing raw minced meat from a cow which had been subjected to 
emergency slaughter on account of torsion of the uterus ; also the 
case of meat poisoning in Middleburg, Holland, in March, 1874, 
during which 349 persons were affected and six died as a result of 
eating fresh leberwurst of unknown origin ; the case of meat pois- 



MEAT POISONING 717 

oning in Neubodenbach from eating fresh knoblauchwurst, the 
cause being unexplained — Bollinger suspected pyemia in the 
animal— and finally the poisoning of 13 persons on an estate in 
Riesa, in June, 1879, after eating the meat of a cow which had been 
slaughtered on account of mammitis and emaciation. 

Reference should be made to the works of Bollinger for infor- 
mation concerning the much-disputed cases of meat poisoning in 
Andelfingen (1841), Kloten (1878), Birmenstorf (1879) and Wurenlos 
(1880), part of which were considered to be typhoid fever 
(Griesiuger). Bollinger, in agreement with Lebert, Kohler, Lieber- 
meister and Biermer, with regard to the case of poisoning in Andel- 
fingen, combats the view that this outbreak was due to typhoid 
fever. Bollinger argues in the first place that typhoid fever does 
not occur in domestic animals, and in the second place, that, 
especially in the outbreak in Andelfingen, dilation of the pupils and 
visual disturbances were always present, symptoms which speak 
against the typhoid nature of this epidemic. In the epidemic at 
Andelfingen, 450 persons became ill on the occasion of a sangerfest 
and ten of the patients died. Veal was suspected of being the 
cause. Difficulties in swallowing and dilation of the pupils were 
noticeable in the patients. The suspected meat had apparently 
transmitted its toxicity to beef while stored together. The toxin 
was not destroyed by cooking. Bollinger is of the opinion that the 
virulence of the toxin was increased post mortem as a result of 
packing the meat together while still warm. 

The outbreak of meat poisoning in Kloten (June, 1878) is char- 
acterized by Bollinger as the most interesting of all cases of meat 
poisoning. In this case, also, 591 persons attending a sangerfest^ 
other persons who ate the meat from the same abattoir, and, finally, 
a still larger number in the case of which this was not demonstrated 
— in all, 657 persons — were affected, with six deaths. According to 
Bollinger, this outbreak is undoubtedly to be ascribed to the con- 
sumption of the meat of a calf one week old, which had either died 
or was slaughtered during the death agony. Unquestionable 
symptoms pointed to this conclusion. In this case also the original 
virulent veal had infected other meat, viz., hams which had been 
stored together with the former in a wooden vat. Persons who 
drank plenty of wine were either only slightly affected or remained 
unaffected.* It is a highly interesting fact, and one not observed in 

* In other cases of meat poisoning, it has been observed that, persons who 
have consumed large quantities of alcoholic drinks after eating unwholesome 
meat have remained well (compare page 714). 



713 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

any other than a case of poisoning in Kloten, that 55 secondary cases 
appeared which were not attributable to eating the meat, but to a 
transmission of the disease by the affected persons. This circum- 
stance confirmed certain observers in the conclusion that the cases 
were typhoid fever. 

In the outbreak of poisoning in Birmenstorf, at least eight 
patients died. The symptoms resembled those of typhoid fever. 
The cause was the consumption of the meat of a calf four days old 
which, was affected with "yellow water" (polyarthritis septica). 
Finally, with regard to Wurenlos, it was merely demonstrated that 
a "large number of persons" became ill after eating unhealthy 
veal. The symptoms, like the cases just mentioned, resembled 
those of typhoid fever. 

Bollinger concludes his valuable treatise with a statement that 
there can be no doubt of the fact " that the pyemic and septicemic 
diseases of food animals bear all the characters of dangerous dis- 
eases, and, accordingly, require very different treatment from a 
sanitary police and prophylactic standpoint than has previously 
been given to them, to the injury of human health." 

The well-founded warning of Bollinger, however, has not 
received the consideration which it deserves. The best proof of 
this statement is the fact that cases of meat poisoning are still com- 
paratively frequent occurrences. 

The writer has succeeded in compiling the statistics of 85 out- 
breaks of meat poisoning which occurred during the years 1880 to 
1900 with more than 4,000 cases, the larger number of which 
occurred in Germany. The history of these epidemics is also very 
instructive from the standpoint of etiology and prophylaxis. It 
proves anew the especially dangerous character of the meat of 
calves affected with sepsis in association with umbilical affection, 
and also of cows which have to be subjected to emergency slaughter 
on account of inflammatory processes after parturition, or on account 
of peculiar affections of the intestines and udder. Quite special 
interest, however, attaches to the history of the cases of meat pois- 
oning during the last twenty years, for the reason that it furnishes 
the first careful investigations concerning the cause of these 
epidemics. 

The more important of these epidemics are briefly described in 
the following paragraphs : 

1. In the Saxon district Bautzen, on September 1, 1881, a cow 
died of septic metritis. The throat of the animal was subsequently 
cut in order to give it the appearance of having been slaughtered. 



MEAT POISONING 719 

After eating the meat, which was not inspected, more than 120 
persons became ill, but recovered quite soon. The symptoms 
appeared, as a rule, within two or three days after eating the meat. 
<K6nig.) 

2. In 1881, several families of laborers in the Saxon district of 
Zittau became ill after eating the meat of a horse which apparently 
was subjected to emergency slaughter on account of petechial fever. 
The children were most violently affected. One woman who laid 
the meat in vinegar before cooking was not affected. No deaths. 
(Grimm.) 

3. In Spreitenbach, Switzerland, in 1881, 30 persons became sick 
after eating the meat of a cow which had been subjected to 
emergency slaughter after parturition. (Strebel.) 

4. In the same town, 4 persons died after eating the meat of a 
diseased cow and calf, while in all 15 families were affected. No 
further details concerning the disease of the food animals were 
■determined. (Strebel.) 

5. Meat poisoning in Oberlangenhardzell (Canton of Zurich). 
Toward the end of June, 1882, two families of four persons each 
became affected with symptoms of violent gastro-enteritis. All the 
patients were sick for from two to three weeks. The youngest child 
of one family, an infant two years old, died on the eighth day in 
convulsions. The official investigations showed with certainty that 
the cases of illness in both families were attributable to eating the 
meat of a calf which had evidently died of a disease. 

6. The Saxon district veterinarian, Wilhelm, reported a case of 
meat poisoning which occurred in the year 1884 and was connected 
with the sale of the meat of a cow which had been subjected to 
emergency slaughter two days after a difficult parturition. Ten 
persons were affected. They recovered, however, within from eight 
to twenty-four hours. The veterinarian who had declared the meat 
to be edible was punished for criminal carelessness. 

7. Meat poisoning in Lauterbach, 1884. After eating the meat 
of a cow subjected to emergency slaughter, a large number of per- 
sons were affected and three died. The symptoms consisted of 
headache, vertigo, bodily pains, diarrhea, and, in some cases, 
vomiting. It was shown that the meat and also the meat broth 
were poisonous. The cow is alleged to have been affected with a 
dysenterial enteritis. The animal had suddenly refused to eat, 
gave no more milk and evacuated " slimy intestinal discharges 
devoid of vegetable matter." Six days later it became necessary to 
slaughter the cow. It was alleged that after slaughter merely a 



720 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

slight erythrism of the intestines was observed. The veterinarian 
who made the inspection was tried, but not convicted. 

8. Meat poisoning in Schonenberg, Switzerland. From June 17 
to 19, 1886, about fifty persons became ill after eating the meat of 
two cows which were slaughtered on the 14th and 15th of that 
month on account of " dysentery." A man in poor health died from 
the effects of diarrhea. 

9. Meat poisoning in Ludwigshafen-Hemshof. From April 17 
to 25, 1886, 90 persons became sick, all of whom had purchased 
meat sausages, from the same butcher. An official investigation 
showed that this butcher had during the night slaughtered a cow 
which had been treated by a veterinarian for three weeks on account 
of retention of the placenta and a malodorous discharge from the 
uterus. The veterinarian who inspected the meat examined the 
uterus in a cursory manner exteriorly and gave permission for the 
free sale of the meat. 

The effects of eating the meat began to appear within two or 
three hours, and in no case later than eighteen to twenty hours. 
Two persons died. 

10. The second outbreak of meat poisoning in Middleburg, 
Holland. This epidemic, which appeared at the beginning of Sep- 
tember, 1887, and which affected 286 persons, was also attributed 
to the retention of the placenta and a septic metritis which was con- 
nected with this condition. The fetal membranes were not ejected 
until the ninth day. The animal was then butchered while in a 
moribund condition. The meat is said to have possessed an unusual 
odor and taste, especially manifest during cooking. The cooking, 
however, did not destroy the toxin, for the meat broth was noxious. 
The first effects of eating the meat appeared after a period varying 
from twelve hours to one or two days. 

11. Kiihnert in Gumbinnen made a report concerning the sick- 
ness of a large number of persons after eating the meat of a cow 
which could not expel the fetus on account of the abnormal position 
of the latter, and, therefore, had to be slaughtered. After three 
days, eight persons- were affected and a few days later twenty-six 
others were affected with a high fever, a burning sensation in the 
stomach, vomition, pains in the extremities and diarrhea. 

12. Meat poisoning in Frankenhausen, May, 1889, with fifty-nine 
cases and one death. The cow the meat of which was the cause of 
these cases had been affected with persistent diarrhea. One 
patient, who died, was affected within one hour after he had eaten 
800 grams of the raw meat. The cooked meat was also injurious. 



MEAT POISONING 721 

"When the cow was slaughtered, merely a partial reddening of the 
intestines was observed. The appearance of the meat is said to 
have been good and the spleen, liver and other organs not 
enlarged. 

13. In Richenau, Saxony, in May, 1889, more than 150 persons 
became ill after eating raw bratwurst and raw minced beef from a 
cow which was slaughtered while in a diseased condition. Upon 
cutting up the cow, only a slight gastritis was observed, and, there- 
fore, no scruples were entertained against admitting the meat to 
market. In this case it was not determined to what extent the warm 
weather of the month of May favored the formation of toxins. It is 
worthy of mention, however, that two other cattle in the same stable 
with the one which was subjected to emergency slaughter exhibited 
the same symptoms of " slight gastritis " and died of the disease. 

14. Meat poisoning in H , Saxony, 1889, after eating the 

meat of a cow which was subjected to emergency slaughter and 
which was said to have shown no evidence of serious disease, but, 
according to the testimony of one witness, exhibited an ill-smelling, 
fluid evacuation while being slaughtered. Numerous cases after 
eating the raw meat. The owner of the cow also became ill. 

15. Meat poisoning in Darkehmen, East Prussia, November, 
1889. Number of cases, thirty. Cause, a beef animal slaughtered 
while in a diseased condition and not inspected by a veterinarian. 
It is a remarkable fact in connection with this case of poisoning, 
that only the consumption of the meat broth was injurious, while 
the meat, either in a cooked or roasted condition, did not cause any 
bad effects (intoxication). 

16. At the Tenth International Medical Congress, de Vischer 
made a report of an outbreak of poisoning after eating the meat of 
a calf which had died of umbilical arterio-phlebitis (so-called calf 
lameness). The bad effects were noticed in thirty-one persons and 
resembled typhoid fever. 

17. Meat poisoning in Rohrsdorf, in October, 1885, after eating 
horse meat, horse meat sausage and cooked horse liver. Nothing 
was learned concerning the condition of health of the horse from 
which the injurious meat originated. One horse was said to have 
been affected with abscesses. The effects of eating the meat 
appeared in the majority of cases within six hours. Numerous 
cases ; one death. 

18. Meat poisoning in Cotta, Saxony, in June, 1889, after eating 
the meat of a cow which was slaughtered on account of a serious 
case of mammitis, in which 136 persons were affected, four of whom 



722 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

died. In the majority of cases the meat was eaten in a raw condi- 
tion. Hoast meat and meat broth, however, produced the same 
effects. The butcher and his assistant, who ate only a mouthful of 
appetitwurstchen, were likewise affected. The meat is said to have 
possessed a good appearance and good odor. 

19. The outbreak of meat poisoning in Katrineholm, Denmark, 
as the result of eating the meat of a beef animal which had suffered 
from " milk fever " and had to be slaughtered. Of the 115 guests 
who sat at a table at a family celebration, one-half were affected, 
the most serious cases being observed in those who had eaten f I'eely 
of the meat broth. According to all our experience, however, this 
can not have been a case of so-called parturient paresis, but only an 
inflammatory form of puerperal fever (septic metritis and its 
sequelse). 

20. Poisoning from eating horse meat in Altena, November, 
1890. Twenty persons bought minced meat from a horse butcher 
and became ill about twelve hours after eating it. One patient died. 
The horse butcher in question had slaughtered two horses a few 
days before, one of them having been found down in the stall and 
unable to stand. The horse perspired excessively and showed diffi- 
culty in respiration, but no loss of appetite. 

21. Epidemic of meat poisoning in Kirchlinde and Frohlinde, 
near Dortmund, in the summer of 1891. After eating the meat of a 
cow which was affected with a disease imperfectly described as 
" abdominal inflammation," with an ill-smelling exudation, numer- 
ous persons became ill. The meat had been brought to the market 
contrary to the orders of a veterinarian. 

22. Outbreak of meat poisoning in Piesenkam. In the middle 
of June, 1891, a number of persons became ill after eating blood 
and liver sausages from a cow subjected to emergency slaughter. 
One man died. The animal was slaughtered under the supervision 
of a butcher appointed as inspector. This butcher, in spite of the 
fact that the cow was affected with gastritis, enteritis and cystitis, 
declared that the meat was edible, and he himself prepared from 
the intestines, blood and meat of the cow the sausages which 
appeared to be so highly toxic. The butcher was punished by three 
months' imprisonment for failure to call a veterinarian in a case of 
evident disease. 

23. An outbreak of meat poisoning, the etiology of which was 
not well understood, occurred near the end of November, 1890, in 
Priedberg, in Hessen. The whole retinue of a land owner, in all, 
21 persons, suddenly became ill after eating meat preserved in brine 



MEAT POISONING 723 

and which came from a cow which had been slaughtered ten days 
before, on account of the loss of a hoof, as a result of foot-and- 
mouth disease. Mixed sausage prepared from the meat of this 
cow and the meat or viscera of two healthy hogs was also injuri- 
ous. The fresh meat of the cow was eaten in large quantities in a 
boiled or roasted condition without any bad effects. 

24 In an outbreak of meat poisoning at Corres, five families 
became ill after eating the meat of a cow which had been sub- 
jected to emergency slaughter on account of the sequelae of foot- 
and-mouth disease. At first the cow exhibited suppuration of the 
matrix and coronary band of the hoof; later, emaciation and inabil- 
ity to rise. After slaughter, an abscess of the size of a man's fist 
was found near the hip joint. Furthermore, all the consumers 
agreed in the statement that the bone marrow was colored and 
fluid and readily ran out of the marrow cavities. The symptoms 
among the affected persons consisted in all cases of violent diar- 
rhea, bodily pains, and, in some cases, included vertigo and 
fainting. 

The outbi'eak of meat pbisoning at Corres is of special inter- 
est on account of the fact that it can be attributed with certainty 
to pyemia. 

25. In August, 1892, in Moorseele, in Belgium, about 80 per- 
sons, after eating veal, were affected with violent vomiting, accom- 
panied with diarrhea and dullness of the sensorium. The injurious 
meat was shown to have come from two calves, one of which had 
died and the other had been slaughtered while in a diseased con- 
dition. According to the statement of witnesses, both calves had 
suffered with acute diarrhea. The intestines of both animals are 
said to have been dark-red in color and the livers swollen, while 
the musculature did not exhibit any great variation from the normal 
condition. It is worthy of mention that the meat was eaten very 
soon, either on the same evening or on the morning after the death 
of the animals. It should also be remembered that the meat was 
eaten in a well-boiled or well-roasted condition, as is the custom 
with Belgian peasants, to whom raw meat is objectionable. Several 
persons remained perfectly well, although they had eaten the meat 
which caused serious illness among their messmates. The period 
of incubation varied; some of the patients exhibited nausea and 
diarrhea within three hours after eating the meat ; in the majority, 
however, the symptoms did not appear until after 24 hours. One 
man was affected after an unsually long period. On August 14 and 
15, he ate meat pies made of the poisonous veal and felt well on the 



h 



724 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

16th and 17th. On the 19th, however, he had to call medical assist- 
ance. He died on the same clay. 

26. In Breslau, October 14-16, 1893, 86 persons were affected 
with gastro-enteritic catarrh, connected in some cases with vertigo^ 
fever, herpes, lassitude and slow convalescence. These symptoms 
appeared within three to sixteen hours after eating raw minced 
beef. All of the persons who had eaten the meat, however small 
the quantity, became ill. In general, the severity of the symptoms 
corresponded to the quantity of meat which was eaten. The great- 
est quantity which was eaten by a vigorous adult male was 125 
grams. In all other cases, this quantity sufficed for six persons. 
One child, who had merely licked the plate, was affected ; no death. 
The period of convalescence was, however, unusually long, in some 
cases more than six months. The meat appeared to be of a fresh 
red color, did not smell badly, but to some of the patients had a 
disagreeable taste. It was shown that the injurious meat came 
from two cows, one of which was slaughtered on account of an 
injury received during parturition, and the other on account of 
" acute inflammation of the liver and watery infiltration of the whole 
musculature." 

27. Outbreak of meat poisoning in the district of Weissenfels. 
In this region more than 100 persons, one of whom died, became ill 
after eating meat. The meat, which was eaten in the form of 
sausage and hash, came from a cow which had to be slaughtered 
on account of a " hoof affection " as a sequela of foot-and-mouth 
disease. The symptoms in all of the patients were those of acute 
gastro-enteritis. Likewise, in one fatal case there were alterations 
such as occur in acute enteritis. Hyperemia of the brain and its 
meninges was also observed. 

28. In Stollberg a butcher slaughtered a calf suffering from 
diarrhea and already in a moribund condition, and brought the 
meat to the market. A large number of persons were affected by 
eating this meat. One seven-year-old boy died after eating an 
especially large quantity. 

29. In 1894, in Brugge, Belgium, more than 70 persons became 
ill after eating meat from a calf which apparently had died. The 
symptoms closely resembled those of cholera.- The first symp- 
toms consisted of spasms and vomiting. Two of the patients died. 

30. In the spring of 1894, in Gersdorf, an epidemic was 
observed as a result of eating meat. The symptoms were bodily 
pain, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, excessive weakness and skin erup- 
tions. The poisonous meat came from a cow whi< h became affected 



MEAT POISONING 725 

-with peritonitis after parturition and for this reason had to be 
slaughtered. 

31. An outbreak of meat poisoning in Bischofswerda. On May 
24-28, 1894, more than 100 persons became ill in this locality 
after eating knackwurst and mettwurst ; in a few cases, also, after 
eating raw minced beef and cooked beef. The general similarity 
of symptoms (vomiting, dysentery-like diarrhea, with more or less 
acute bodily paius, headache, pains in the extremities, vertigo, great 
weakness, lassitude, depression, burning thirst and fever up to 
40° C.) pointed to a common cause. In most cases the effects of 
eating the meat appeared within from 9 to 20 hours, persisted 2 to 
3 days, rarely longer, and all cases terminated in recovery. The 
convalescent patients complained of a long-persisting, excessive 
weakness. In some patients it is said that during the course of the 
disease an eczema appeared on the lips and rapidly healed up. 
The cause of this epidemic was not explained, since it was impos- 
sible to determine the disease with which the suspected beef ani- 
mal was affected. 

32. An outbreak of meat poisoning in Denis. Kuborn made a 
report concerning an outbreak of meat poisoning in Denis, during 
which 30 persons were affected and 9 died. The meat came from a 
cow which had died a natural death. 

33. An epidemic of meat poisoning in Gaustadt. In the insane 
asylum at Gaustadt, near Christiania, 81 among 101 persons who had 
eaten meat at the same time were affected with fever, vomiting and 
diarrhea. In a number of cases there was also facial herpes or 
erythema with subsequent desquamation. Four patients died. In 
these latter, it was possible to demonstrate only petechise under the 
serous membranes and more or less pronounced symptoms of acute 
intestinal catarrh, together with small infarcts in the lungs. In 
one case, in which the disease took a chronic course, there were also 
numerous ulcers in the colon. 

34. An outbreak of meat poisoning in the district of Kempen, in 
Posen. During the pentecost of 1896, in four localities of the dis- 
trict of Kempen, more than 100 persons became ill after eating 
pork sausage and meat broth. A majority of the patients were 
seriously ill, and one man died. The investigation of the outbreak 
failed to demonstrate the disease affecting the animals from which 
the meat had been obtained. 

35. Meat poisoning in Daber. In this locality 33 persons 
became ill, a number of them seriously so, after eating the meat of 
a cow which had been slaughtered on account of diarrhea and great 



726 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

depression. After the slaughter it was found that the animal was 
suffering from enteritis. The butcher who, contrary to orders of 

the veterinarian, J , by whom the inspection was made, sold the 

meat not only without declaration, but as " firm, fat steer beef," was 
condemned to six months' imprisonment on account of a violation 
of the food law and deception. The veterinarian was also tried, but 
not convicted. 

36. An outbreak of meat poisoning in the Canton of Thurgau. 
According to Silberschmidt, many persons of the Canton of Thurgau 
in the spring of 1896 became ill after eating cooked, pickled and 
smoked pork. The meat was alleged to have come from animals 
which had been subjected to emergency slaughter on account of a 
reddening of the skin and symptoms of gastro-enteric catarrh. 
Seven persons who ate the meat were affected with, gastro-enteric 
catarrh within a few days, and a four-year-old child, previously in 
excellent health, died after two days with symptoms of acute diar- 
rhea and convulsions. 

37. An outbreak of meat poisoning in Sielkeim, East Prussia. 
In June 13-16, 1896, 41 persons in Sielkeim were affected, 15 of 
them seriously, with symptoms of summer-cholera, acute bodily 
pains and excessive weakness. The feces were malodorous and, in 
some cases, bloody. The symptoms appeared within a few hours 
to two days after eating the meat. Seven families who ate of the 
meat were not affected. No death. All the patients recovered by 
June 22. The district veterinarian, Kriiger, demonstrated that the 
epidemic was caused by the meat of two three-months-old calves 
which had been slaughtered on account of diarrhea associated with 
great depression. 

38. An outbreak of meat poisoning at Kalk, near Koln. On 
July 19, 1897, and subsequently, 41 persons in Kalk were affected 
with summer-cholera associated with disturbances of the general 
condition. Two died. The most serious cases appeared after eat- 
ing minced raw meat. A small mouthful of this was sufficient to 
produce more or less serious illness. The cooked meat was 

also found to be injurious. The butcher, E , who brought 

the toxic meat to mai-ket, at first asserted that it came from a 
healthy cow which had been slaughtered at the cattle yards of 

Koln. Later, however, it was found that E had substituted, 

in the place of the healthy one, another cow which had been sub- 
jected to emergency slaughter on account of diarrhea associated 
with inappetency and serious disturbances of the general condi- 
tion. The meat of this cow was shown to have caused the out- 



MEAT POISONING 727 

"break of meat poisoning at Kalk. E , who had brought the 

meat to market without a previous inspection by an inspector, was 
condemned to three months' imprisonment. 

39. An outbreak of meat poisoning in Bulstringen. In an 
action in the Criminal Court in Magdeburg, it was shown that in 
Bulstringen, in 1898, 40 persons became affected with gastro-enteritis 
after eating the meat of a calf which had been subjected to emergency 
slaughter. A veterinary inspection of the condemned pieces of meat 
showed that the calf had been affected with diarrhea and inflamma- 
tion of the joints. 

40. An outbreak of meat poisoning in Sirault. In 1898, in 
Sirault, about 100 persons were affected with vomiting, gastric 
cramps, colic, diarrhea, evacuation of green, malodorous stools. 
These symptoms appeared after eating pork. Simultaneously there 
were chills, headache, formication, twitching of the skin and great 
thirst. Fever was present only at the onset of the disease. In 
some patients urticaria and labial herpes were observed. Improve- 
ment took place after eight days. In some patients, however, the 
convalescent period was prolonged for weeks. In three cases the 
disease ran a fatal course. 

The above are the more important epidemics of poisoning as a 
result of eating meat, which have been reported in the literature of 
the subject in the last twenty years. Doubtless, however, by no 
means all cases, even when they affected a large number of persons, 
have come to public notice. The majority of practicing veterina- 
rians, like the Saxon district veterinarian, Lehnert (Jahresbericht, 
1884), could report experiences in this line. Lehnert states that he 
has repeatedly observed cases in which the meat of cows which" 
have been affected with metritis after parturition and in which the 
placenta had been entirely or partly retained, caused symptoms of 
poisoning (vomiting and diarrhea) after the meat was eaten. In 
many cases, however, the illness persisted for only a few days. 

Bollinger stated in a lecture which he delivered at a meeting 
of the Society for Public Sanitation that " the number of undeter- 
mined infections, intestinal infections, the cause of which is chiefly 
found in the food, is, even in adult persons, much larger than is 
commonly assumed .... As a result of eating meat which comes 
from diseased, especially septic food animals, pathological condi- 
tions are produced, which, with regard to their course and also with 
regard to their anatomical alterations, show a great variation. All 
transition stages exist from simple digestive disturbances, gastric 
catarrh and summer-cholera, to serious febrile attacks, which at 



728 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

times appear under the form of the so-called pituitous fever, gastric 
fever, ileo-typhoid or dysentery .... To the domain of meat 
poisoning belong probably many other cases of sickness which 
assume the form of petechial typhoid or febrile icterus (Weil's dis- 
ease) . . .•. It has been demonstrated by experiments on animals 
(Kocher) that septic and bacterial toxins may make their way from 
the alimentary canal into the body and cause serious inflammatory 
processes (for example, infectious inflammation of the bone marrow) 
without leaving any trace at the point of entrance." 

Prophylaxis of Meat Poisoning. — With regard to the prophy- 
laxis of meat poisoning, the following considerations are to be borne 
in mind : 

1. It is necessary that a decision by a government veterinarian 
should be required in all cases of emergency slaughter and that 
empirical meat inspectors who err, as a result of their own arbitrary 
decisons, should be punished severely. 

2. The veterinarian should always perform a careful and 
detailed inspection of all organs. 

3. The veterinarian should not admit the meat to the market 
unless he is perfectly satisfied concerning the disease of the animal 
and when, according to existing knowledge on the subject, it can be 
considered as certain that the consumption of the meat will not 
cause any injury to health. 

4. The meat of all animals subject to emergency slaughter, with 
the exception of those which, on account of accidents, are slaugh- 
tered immediately afterward, is to be sold only under declaration 
and, wherever possible, at the place of slaughter. 

It is, however, a duty of veterinary science, in cooperation with 
practical veterinarians, to solve the numerous problems connected 
with cases of meat poisoning which still require an explanation. 
We must, in particular, attempt to determine all diseases in which 
there is a possibility of injury to health from eating the meat. 
These problems, even to-day, belong to the more obscure parts of 
pathology, although during the last ten years much important 
material has been collected for explaining these disputed questions. 
From the history of cases of meat poisoning, we know that certain 
diseases of female breeding animals, as well as of new-born 
animals, are of prime importance in the etiology of meat poisoning. 
We do not know for certain, however, why meat from animals suf- 
fering from the disease in question is not p.'.^vays injurious. 



MEAT POISONING 729 

Furthermore, the septic and pyemic diseases of cryptogenetic 
character, especially those mysterious septic diseases of the intes- 
tines and udder in cattle, are in urgent need of more exact etiologi- 
cal investigations. Beginnings have already been made by the 
work of Johne, Gartner, Gaffky and Paak, Poels and Dhont, Van 
Ermengem, Fliigge, Kansche, Hoist, Kuborn, Silberschmidt, Giin- 
ther, especially by the brilliant investigations of Basenau, which 
are of greatest importance in rendering a decision on emergency 
slaughter. 

Etiology of Meat Poisoning. — The first bacteriological inves- 
tigation on the subject of the etiology of meat poisoning was done by 
Johne. In an outbreak of meat poisoning in Lauterbach, he found 
a bacillus in the injurious meat which was pathogenic to mice and 
other experimental animals, and possessed 
morphological characters quite similar to FlG - 246. 

those of Bacillus anthracis. Bostrbm also 
considered the micro-organism in question 
to be B. anthracis. 

In the outbreak of meat poisoning in 
Frankenhausen (page 720), Gartner de- 
monstrated a bacillus in the meat and 
inside the blood vessels It was motile, 
easily stainable, but took the stains most 
intensely at one pole, the remainder of 
the bacillus being only slightly stained. 

Dogs, cats, chickens and sparrows proved to be immune. Mice, 
rabbits, guinea pigs and goats, however, were affected by inocu- 
lation and also per os. B. enteritidis, as Gartner named the 
organism, produces a chemical toxin which is not destroyed by 
cooking. This explains the fact that in the case of meat poisoning 
in Frankenliausen persons who had eaten cooked parts of the meat 
were also affected. Johne demonstrated B. enteritidis also in the 
meat of the cow which caused the outbreak of meat poisoning at 
Cotta. Strange to say, however, the bacilli in this outbreak 
were found only in the connective tissue and not in the blood 
■vessels. Later, Johne isolated the same micro-organism from 
mettwurst and knackwurst which were condemned on account of 
their connection with the outbreak of meat poisoning at Bisch- 
offswerda. Mice died within from six to twelve days after being 
fed material obtained from the sausage, and the bacteria in question 
were found in large numbers in the spleen and in small numbers 



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acillus 


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730 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

also in the blood and transudation. Karlinsky states that he 
found B. enteritidis in dried mutton which had proved to be 
poisonous. 

In the outbreak of meat poisoning at Rohrsdorf, Gaffky and 
Paak made cultures of pathogenic micro-organisms from two sau- 
sages which were sent to them. These organisms were called 
" sausage bacillus." The latter was found to be a motile rod which 
did not stain as well in aqueous staining solutions as after the addi- 
tion of anilin oil. In stab cultures the sausage bacillus resembles 
the typhoid bacillus. It is a facultative anaerobe and is killed by 
flaming. However, it possesses the property of producing patho- 
genic effects when ingested with food. Mice, guinea pigs and apes 
proved most susceptible to this method of infection. Gaffky and 
Paak were unable to demonstrate the sausage bacillus in samples 
of meat sausage from any other source. 

In the outbreak of meat poisoning at Rotterdam, Poels and 
Dhont found short and extraordinarily delicate rods on the surface 
of the meat and in the intermuscular tissues. These organisms 
were much more numerous than other demonstrable bacteria. The 
Rotterdam bacillus is slowly motile, produces indol, but does not 
coagulate milk. Intravenous injection of the bacillus in large quan- 
tities kills cattle within fourteen hours, and the bacilli have been 
found in all organs, blood and muscles. When inoculated with 
small doses (\ cc.) cattle recovered after a temporary affection and 
the meat of a beef animal slaughtered four days after such inocula- 
tion was eaten by the personnel of the Rotterdam Cattle Yards 
without injurious effect. Another experimental beef animal was 
killed twenty minutes after the inoculation of a small quantity of 
the pure culture, and part of the meat was preserved at 20° C. and 
another part in a refrigerator. Immediately after slaughtering the 
bacillus was found in the spleen and liver, as well as in the blood 
vessels in small quantities, while it could not be demonstrated in 
the muscles, except in their blood vessels. On the other hand, meat 
which was preserved for seventy-two hours at a temperature of 
20° C. was found to be thoroughly permeated with the bacilli.* At 
the instigation of Poels and Dhont, 53 persons ate of the meat which 
had been preserved in cold storage, 15 of them were affected with 



*This finding is of importance in explaining the fact that meat of animals 
subjected to emergency slaughter, when eaten soon after slaughter, is often 
harmless or only slightly harmful, while that eaten later may develop very toxic 
properties, as a result of the multiplication of the bacilli which has taken place 
in the meantime. 



MEAT POISONING 731 

headache, gastric enteric catarrh and bodily pains. The symptoms, 
appeared Avithin from twelve to eighteen hours after eating the 
meat. Some of the patients were affected with severe diarrhea.* 

In the outbreak of meat poisoniug at Moorseele, Van Ermengem. 
demonstrated bacilli, which he called the Moorseele bacillus, iu the 
marrow of the femur of two calves concerned in the case of poison- 
ing. This bacillus was 0.6 to 1.5 pi long, somewhat thick but often 
slender at both ends. It is commonly grouped together in pairs 
and rarely forms chains in the tissues. It is surrounded with a 
glistening zone. The rods are very motile and possess numerous; 
(4 to 8) long flagella which are easily stained with Loffler's flagel- 
lum stain. In saccharine media, the bacillus of Moorseele produces 
gas by a decomposition of the sugar. Neutral milk is not coagu- 
lated by the bacillus. The milk becomes clear and after eight to 
ten days is almost transparent. It becomes slightly brownish at 
the same time and assumes an alkaline reaction. The Moorseele 
bacillus proved to be pathogenic for calves, apes, dogs, guinea pigs, 
rabbits, pigeons and mice by any method of inoculation. In th& 
majority of cases, a more or less severe enteritis with hemorrhages 
in the lungs, liver and spleen appears after inoculation, and in this 
case the Moorseele bacillus could always be demonstrated in the- 
organs and blood. The bacillus produces a tosalbumen which is 
not destroyed by heating to a temperature of 100° or even 120° C 
Van Ermengem found a great similarity between his bacillus ancE 
B. enteritidis of Gartner. However, the two micro-organisms are not 
identical. The difference in the appearance of pure cultures and in 
their behavior toward stains argues against their identity. The 
bacillus of Moorseele stains homogeneously, while B. enteritidis- 
does not. 

In an epidemic of meat poisoning in Breslau, Sanitarian Fliigge 
fed parts of the poisonous meat to mice. The animals died after 
two days with symptoms of severe diarrhea. In the intestines o£ 
the animals a pure culture was found of a bacterium resembling 
B. coll. From the intestinal contents and the internal organs of the 
mice, the same bacteria were isolated which had been found in the- 
poisonous meat. Pure cultures of the bacteria killed mice in two- 
to three days with the same symptoms. The bacterial species in 
question multiplies rapidly in the organism, but ultimately produces- 
its effect by means of a toxin, for the number of bacteria is not suffi- 



*The repetition of this experiment on man does not recommend itself, since 
the results of such experiments can not be foreseen with certainty. 



732 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

ciently large to enable them to operate mechanically. Kansche 
states concerning the Breslau bacillus that he was able to demon- 
strate it in streak cultures made directly from the meat and that it 
forms gas in saccharine media and produces a toxin which is not 
destroyed by boiling the pure culture for two minutes. The rods 
are from two to three times as long as thick, rounded at the ends, 
stain readily with the ordinary anilin stains, but are decolorized by 
the Gram method. They are actively motile, grow on gelatin in a 
manner similar to the typhoid bacillus. Growth is very luxuriant 
on potatoes. Indol reaction is negative, and milk is not coagu- 
lated. The Breslau bacillus is highly pathogenic for mice and 
pigeons, less so for rabbits. Dogs and cats are refractory. Cooked 
pigeon and rabbit meat killed rats and mice with symptoms of 
Intoxication. Bacteria could not be demonstrated in the organisms 
of these experimental animals. Sterilized bouillon cultures (boiled 
ior two minutes) also proved to be toxic for mice. By means of a 
tabular comparison of the organisms thus far found in cases of 
meat poisoning, Kansche showed that the Breslau bacillus is 
identical with the Moorseele bacillus and perhaps also with the 
^bacillus of Poels and Dhont, but that it was distinct from the other 
bacilli (Gartner, Karlinski, Fischer, Gaffky and Paak, and Baseuau). 
33asenau made cultures of " B. bovis morbificans " from the meat of a 
cow which had been slaughtered on account of a disease occurring 
after parturition. This organism is of the size of the typhoid bacil- 
lus (1 to 1.2 }x long and .3 to .5 jj. wide), is motile and grows rapidly. 
It is a facultative anaerobe, grows in and upon meat, forms no 
spores, and is killed by exposure to a temperature of 70° C. for one 
minute. B. bovis morbificans does not produce toxins. It is patho- 
genic for mice, white rats, guinea pigs and calves, whether trans- 
mitted by inoculation or per os. Later, Basenau demonstrated 
that this bacillus forms indol, but gives no nitroso-indol reaction 
with sulphuric acid ; that it ferments grape sugar, but not milk and 
icane sugar; produces volatile sulphur compounds, and possesses 
•considerable reducing power toward litmus. It lives in beef broth 
for three years, but dies after four days in meat broth containing 
an excess of common salt, and within ten days on agar containing 
salt. 

In an epidemic of meat poisoning in Gaustadt, Hoist isolated a 
micro-organism from the spleen of three of the patients which 
died, and from the intestinal ulcers of one. The organism was con- 
sidered identical with the Moorseele bacillus. The Gaustadt bacil- 
lus is very virulent for rabbits, less so for guinea pigs, mice and 



MEAT POISONING 73£ 

pigeons. It kills animals by any means of transmission, including- 
the method per os. The bacillus thrives on all ordinary media,,, 
and in bouillon forms toxins which are very virulent for rabbits: 
when injected intravenously. These toxins are not destroyed by- 
cooking. An evident diminution of virulence was often observed. 
The attenuated bacillus, however, again became perfectly virulent 
by passage through pigeons. 

In an outbreak of meat poisoning in Denis, Kuborn deter- 
mined Staphylococcus pyogenes flavus as the cause of the outbreak- 
This organism was demonstrated also in five samples of the toxia 
meat of the cow.* 

Silberschmidt investigated the sickness which was observed iit 
a family in the Canton of Thurgau after eating the meat of young: 
pigs. The suspected meat caused no pathological symptoms when, 
fed to experimental animals. On the other hand, the injection of a 
bouillon culture which had been prepared from the dejecta of one o£ 
the patients, and from the meat, killed guinea pigs in nearly all 
cases in which inoculation was made intraperitoneally. In the 
dejecta of the patients and in the meat of the pig a short rod with, 
rounded ends was found with 4 or, rarely, 8 flagella of considerable 
length which were evenly stainable, but which were decolorized by 
Gram's method. The bacillus was killed when heated to a tempera- 
ture of 58° C. It did not liquefy gelatin, produced much gas in 
grape sugar agar, but did not coagulate milk. The odor was 
slightly sweet and the organism is thereby distinguished from the 
otherwise similar B. coli communis.^ 

In the epidemic of meat poisoning in Kempen, an examination: 
of the spleen and liver of the persons who died after eating the 
meat showed the presence of a micro-organism, which Giinther, on 
the basis of his investigations, considered identical with B. enteri- 
ticlis. 

Bacteria which are similar to B. enteritidis and B. coli communis 
were also demonstrated to be the cause of meat poisoning by Hoef- 
nagel (outbreak of meat poisoning on an estate near Rotterdam),. 
Froidbise (two outbreaks of meat poisoning in Belgium after eating 

* Basenau called attention to the fact that the outbreak of meat poison- 
ing in Denis was the only instance in which cocci were found as the cause of dis- 
ease in the place of bacilli, as in other cases of meat poisoning. 

f The outbreak of meat poisoning reported by Silberschmidt proves anew that 
pickling and smoking are not sufficient to kill pathogenic bacteria in meat. This . 
fact was experimentally demonstrated by Stadler for the bacteria which are 
found in cases of meat poisoning. Stadler found that bacteria are not killed by 
ordinary pickling, if they were present in the muscles intra vitam. 



734 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

insufficiently cooked sausages of good appearance), Hermann (out- 
break of meat poisoning at Sirault), and Nobele (outbreak of meat 
poisoning in Flanders). Hermann demonstrated that the serum of 
men and animals which had withstood an invasion of the bacillus 
which causes meat poisoning possesses an agglutinating property in 
dilutions varying from 1:6 to. 1 :400, and Nobele showed that the 
serum of human beings who had recovered from a case of meat 
poisoning in Flanders possessed agglutinating properties, not only 
toward the bacilli which were obtained from these cases of meat 
poisoning, but also toward the organisms found in the outbreaks at 
Moorseele, Geneva, Calmpthout and Sirault, even in dilutions of 
1:200. 

Finally, Basenau made a bacteriological investigation of six. 
cases of a disease in slaughtered animals and thereby obtained a 
confirmation of his previously-expressed opinion that, as a rule, the 
pathogenic bacteria which penetrate into the meat of animals intra 
vitam are bacilli. Basenau also demonstrated that some of these 
T)acilli, which he called " meat bacilli " (more properly, meat poison- 
ing bacilli), form toxins'which are not destroyed by cooking, while 
in others, as shown by Gartner and Van Ermengem, this is not the 
case. 

All the bacilli thus far found in cases of meat poisoning show a 
great morphological resemblance to B. coli communis, but differ from 
this organism in their biological and pathological characters. Base- 
nau states, therefore, that two views may be held : either all of the 
Toacteria in question arise from one and the same biologically 
and pathologically variable mother species, or we have to deal with 
distinct races which preserve their characters within narrow limits. 
^Moreover, from the above-discussed bacteriological studies on the 
problem of meat inspection, Basenau draws the following conclu- 
sion : "In all cases of judgment of the meat of diseased animals, 
except in cases in which the meat must be condemned without any 
^hesitation, on the basis of a microscopic examination of the animal 
carcass — or with the aid of the known pathological symptoms— a 
proper bacteriological investigation will lead in the best and most 
certain manner to a result which will satisfy all concerned." 

Basenau rightly holds the opinion that meat containing only 
"bacteria which die at a temperature of 70° C. and a toxin which is 
destroyed at 100° C. may be admitted to the market without hesi- 
tation, without previous treatment in a steam disinfector. 

Aside from the bacteriology of cases of meat inspection, the 
clinical and pathologico-anatomical characters which are common to 



MEAT POISONING 735 

septic diseases are of the greatest importance in the prophylaxis of 
meat poisoning. The most conspicuous clinical characters are a 
serious disturbance of the general condition and the great depres- 
sion of the animals, which is often out of all proportion to the local 
diseases. From a pathologico-anatomical standpoint, lesions of 
certain viscera (cloudy swelling and fatty metamorphosis of the 
liver, 'heart and kidneys), associated with hemorrhages tinder the 
serous membranes, as well as swelling of all lymphatic glands, fur- 
nish the most valuable criteria to the veterinary inspector for 
rendering a judgment in critical cases. 

It is precisely because this decision is so difficult that we must 
consider the duty which has devolved upon us as highly thank- 
worthy. To withhold from the market all the meat in cases of 
emergency slaughter would mean an unjustifiable waste of animal 
resources ; while, on the other hand, too great leniency in judgment 
would injure the health and endanger the lives of hundreds of 
human beings. By a proper performance of our duty we reach the 
desired goal, namely, the withholding from consumption of only 
such animals subjected to emergency slaughter as is absolutely 
necessary. At the same time, however, we extricate the veterinarian 
from an embarrassing position which can be appreciated only by 
those who have passed sleepless nights after rendering opinions in 
cases of emergency slaughter, although experiencing no compunc- 
tions of conscience. 

By the use of the above mentioned criteria, the expert will not, 
as a rule, experience especial difficulty in rendering judgment on 
meat from cases of emergency slaughter. In doubtful cases he 
may have resort to the bacteriological test mentioned by Basenau, 
for securing a certain criterion. Cases of meat poisoning will 
probably not entirely disappear. It may be assumed, however, that 
they will become very rare. In spite of the greatest conscientious- 
ness, errors in judgment will still occur, since there are limits to 
human knowledge and power, but, ultra posse nemo tenetur. 

With regard to the practice of meat inspection in cases of 
emergency slaughter, a circular letter of the Imperial Commission 
for Veterinary Service in the Kingdom of Saxony states that inspec- 
tors should not render judgment according to the appearance of 
the meat, since even when possessed of decidedly harmful pro- 
perties, it may appear perfectly normal. Soon after slaughter, but 
with a thorough dissectioD, a careful investigation of all organs 
should be undertaken. As diseases which have frequently led to 
meat poisoning, the following are mentioned : Inflammation of the 



73G EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

sexual passages connected with parturition (puerperal ; especially 
inflammations which occur in consequence of lesions or retention of 
the embryonic membranes), parenchymatous inflammations of the 
udder with serious febrile conditions ; febrile gastro-enteric 
catarrhs, which, in and of themselves, are not very serious, but in 
which the tendency to hemorrhages and blood effusions, the 
redness of the serous covering and mucous membrane of the intes- 
tines, swelling of the lymphatic follicles in the latter, the swelling 
of the mesenteric glands and parenchymatous degeneration (cloudy 
swelling) of the kidneys, liver and cardiac muscle, however slight 
these processes may be, indicate an absorption of harmful sub- 
stances from the intestine into the blood ; and, finally, peritonitis 
and pleuritis, as a result of perforation of the wall of the stomach 
or intestines, as well as cases of traumatic pericarditis in which the 
exudation in the pericardium possesses a conspicuously vile odor. 
Thus, experience has shown that an intoxication of the blood may 
easily take place from the serous sacs by the absorption of the 
organic toxins which are formed in consequence of the ichorous 
(septic) inflammation. Moreover, attention is called to the rapid 
decomposition of carcasses of animals affected with septic diseases. 
These processes may be readily recognized by the change in the 
chemical reaction of the meat. If the meat of animals slaughtered 
on account of disease shows an alkaline reaction within twenty-four 
hours after death, the meat is to be considered, in doubtful cases, 
as unqualifiedly foul, and, therefore, unfit for food. Likewise, in 
doubtful cases, the unfitness for food of the meat of animals slaugh- 
tered on account of disease is unquestionable, if, within forty-eight 
aours after death, the muscle fibers show under the microscope a 
loss of their characteristic cross striation, a granular cloudiness and 
a disintegration into fragments. 

If, even after all these view points are considered, doubt arises 
concerning the fitness of the meat for food, it appears desirable that 
a decision in the matter should not be reached in summer before 
twenty-four hours and in winter not before forty-eight hours after 
slaughter. Experience teaches that within this period in cases of 
septic and toxic poisoning, such conspicuous abnormal alterations 
of the meat appear with respect to its color and odor as to furnish 
sufficient criteria for judging the character of the meat in doubtful 
cases, 

Eecent Experience Concerning the Slaughter Findings in 
Cases of Septicemia and Pyemia op Food Animals.— Hartenstein, 



MEAT POISONING 737 

as a result of his experience, lays great stress on the reaction of the 
musculature in judging cases of emergency slaughter. He rightly 
asserts that the meat in emergency slaughter maybe unhesitatingly 
declared fit for food if the musculature shows an acid, or at least 
not an alkaline reaction, and if the heart, intestines and liver are 
normal. Moreover, with reference to the differential diagnosis of 
osteomyelitis, Hartenstein calls attention to the fact that the soften- 
ing and liquefaction of the bone marrow may also be observed in 
many harmless diseases, in which, however, the marrow does not 
appear as if clouded with pus, but like yellow vaselin or Provence 
oil. Finally, Hartenstein states that he has frequently found a 
fatty degeneration of the liver in cases in which the clinical symp- 
toms did not lead to a suspicion of sepsis, and that, therefore, 
importance is to be ascribed to this hepatic alteration only in 
cases in which the other anatomical characters of sepsis are also 
present. 

Augst made an important observation, that in obstruction of the 
esophagus, traumatic pericarditis, acute anemia, and, in general, in 
all diseases which are ushered in with dyspnea, the musculature 
does not show its normal acid reaction until twenty-four hours or 
more after slaughter, but has an alkaline reaction up to that time. 
Edelmann and Noack made an extensive investigation on the occur- 
rence of alkaline reaction in the meat of freshly slaughtered animals. 
An alkaline reaction of the musculature was found in 147, or 10 per 
cent., of 1,474 hogs; 4, or 4.5 per cent., of 89 cattle ; 5, or 8 per 
cent., of 62 sheep ; and 5, or 2 per cent., of 251 calves. 

In no case did septicemia or pyemia exist. In the majority of 
cases, the alkaline condition persisted for days, or until decomposi- 
tion set in. The appearance of an acid reaction in the meat of 
normal slaughtered cattle and hogs frequently did not occur until 
after from three to six hours. According to Edelmann and Noack, 
an abnormal reaction in meat is due to a disturbance of the chemism 
of the musculature, in which asphyxiating conditions, heart failure, 
insufficient oxidation of the blood, etc., play an important role. 
Hartenstein made a report on a cow which was slaughtered on 
account of the appearance of tetanus a short time after parturition, 
which showed a fatty degeneration of the liver, and an alkaline 
reaction of the meat from the first to the seventh day. On the 
seventeenth day the meat was sold on a freibank in a raw condition. 
Furthermore, Hartenstein found an alkaline reaction of the meat in 
a cow which was slaughtered on account of tympanites and in 
another which was slaughtered on account of malignant catarrhal 



738 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

fever. Since no further suspicious symptoms were present, the 
meat in both cases was sold on a freibank. 

Moreover, according to Augst, all of the lymphatic glands are 
swollen in cases of sepsis and under certain conditions permeated 
with hemorrhages. Naturally the lymphatic glands in the region 
in which inflammatory processes take place (as, for example, the 
bronchial glands in pneumonia, the mesenteric-glands in intestinal 
inflammations, etc.) do not come into consideration in this connec- 
tion. Moreover, septic alterations of the lymphatic glands should 
not be confused with the red coloration of the bronchial glands in 
cases of blood aspiration, the dark brownish-red coloration of the 
borders of the corporeal lymphatic glands in cows, and the red col- 
oration of certain follicles and accessory lymphatic glands which 
occur so frequently in food animals. Ac- 
Fig. 247. cording to Augst, the lymphatic glands may 
lH be altered in the above described manner, 
^JlH - "\ while other symptoms of sepsis are wanting 
III* immediately after slaughter. However, he 
If llr"' ^lllsfc never observed swelling of the lymphatic 
^k glands without a degeneration of the organic 
parenchyma in cases of sepsis. Both abnor- 
mal conditions exist together. Moreover, the 

Bacteria of calf dysentery f ac fc should be emphasized that in all cases 
trom a smear preparation . . -_ „ x . , 1 i ,. 

from the crural vein of a oi sepsis all of the corporeal lymphatic 

calf slaughtered in the nrl an( ] s are swollen, and that, therefore, no 
crisis of dysentery. X 500 j? . ' 

diameters. importance is to be attached to the enlarge- 

ment of a single lymphatic gland. 

Augst tests the reaction of the musculature by making a deep 
incision into the musculature of the thigh and pressing a piece of 
litmus paper moistened with water against the cut surface by means 
of a knife. This should not be done with the finger, since the finger 
tips frequently have an acid reaction. After a period of ten minutes 
the paper is removed from the muscle and laid upon a white sub- 
stratum and compared with a moistened sample of the original 
litmus paper. Edelmann and Noack called attention to the fact 
that the reaction of the musculature may be different in different 
parts of the body, and that, therefore, in doubtful cases a test of the 
reaction must be made with different muscle parts somewhat dis- 
tant from one another. 

Augst recommends caution in making a microscopic examina- 
tion of meat, for he was able to demonstrate granular cloudiness 
and loss of the transverse striation even in perfectly healthy meat. 



MEAT POISONING 739 

Finally, in the meat of animals which Augst did not observe 
during life, he always applies a cooking test for determining the 
abnormal odor. For this purpose one-fourth to one-half a pound of 
chopped meat is boiled with a little water in a closed vessel for 
one-fourth hour. The cover of the vessel is then lifted and the odors 
tested. 

Augst makes the microscopical examination and the cooking 
test at home. If, despite this careful preliminary examination, 
some doubt still remains, he makes another examination of the meat 
after twenty-four to forty-eight hours, in accordance with the Saxon 
circular letter (test of the reaction, microscopical examination and 
cooking test). 

Bacteriological Investigation of Meat in Cases of Emer- 
gency Slaughter. — In cases suited to this purpose (page 734), 
Basenau proposed the following bacteriological test of the meat : 
" It is desirable that the investigation be undertaken twenty-four 
hours after ordinary or emergency slaughter, for the reason that the 
bacteria of meat poisoning multiply even at low temperatures and 
the large numbers which are thus obtained facilitate investigation. 
In this connection it is naturally supposed that after slaughter the 
stomach, intestines, etc., are removed in the usual manner. We 
thus exclude the possibility that bacteria which may be found in 
the interior of the meat have made their way thither as a result of 
post mortem invasion from the intestines. For, according to mani- 
fold experience, no micro-organisms are found in the meat of 
healthy animals even when examined a long time after slaughter. 
Streak cultures and gelatin plate* cultures are then to be prepared 
from the inside of a piece of meat which contains much loose con- 
nective tissue.t Gelatin plates are quite satisfactory for this pur- 
pose, provided one uses Forster's gelatin with a high liquefaction 
point. Simultaneously, two mice should be fed with pieces of raw 
meat and two others with pieces of meat which have been subjected 
for one hour to a temperature of 100° 0. X 



* The preparation of gelatin plates may offer considerable difficulty in the 
practice of meat inspection, especially in the country. It is, however, not abso- 
lutely necessary to use them. The determination of bacteria in meat may be 
made with sufficient certainty by streak preparations on slant agar. Agar tubes 
may be readily transported in a sterile condition, while gelatin plates can not. 
For this reason, I recommend streak cultures on slant agar, in place of the plate 
method described by Basenau for the demonstration of bacteria in meat. 

f Poels and Dhont have shown that " meat bacilli " multiply most rapidly in. 
muscles which exhibit a loose intermuscular connective tissue. 



7^0 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

" If micro-organisms are not found in the preparations and if 
no colonies develop in the plates within twenty-four hours, the 
meat can be discharged without further investigation. 

" If the presence of bacteria is demonstrated in the streak cul- 
tures or plates, the meat should be preserved temporarily in a suit- 
able manner and the result of the animal experiment, which should 
be manifest in most cases within at most three days, if the result is 
positive, will assist in rendering the final judgment. If the mice 
which are fed with the raw meat die, while those which are fed with 
meat cooked for one hour do not die, it is apparent that the 
poisonous property is removed by cooking. According to previous 
experience, the meat may then be admitted to the market without 
any danger to human health, after a previous sterilization in a 
steam apparatus. If no apparatus for sterilization is available, then 
the simple demonstration of the presence of large quantities of bac- 
teria in the meat is sufficient to justify condemnaton. If the ani- 
mals fed on the pieces of boiled meat also die, the meat is to be 
excluded from the market, or at least admitted only for technical 
purposes. This procedure would be in the spirit of the recom- 
mendations cf Gerlach, who, several decades ago, stated that the 
aim of meat inspection should be to protect the health of the 
consumers and at the same time to utilize as much as possible of 
the abnormal food animals." 

While, up to the present time, no case of meat poisoning has 
occurred where meat has been inspected in a regular manner, never- 
theless, the investigation suggested by Basenau is an important 
step in advance in the problem of rendering judgment on the meat 
in cases of emergency slaughter. For, according to the method of 
Basenau, it becomes possible to admit meat to the market in cases 
in which, up to the present time, the meat must have been excluded 
from consumption on account of a presumption of its injurious 
character. 

Technique op the Demonstration op Bacteria in the Interior 
or Meat. — For the demonstration of bacteria in the interior of 
meat, a piece of meat is singed with a broad knife heated almost to 
a glowing temperature ; a deep vertical incision is then made into 
the meat with the sterilized knife. By means of a third and fourth 
sterile knives, horizontal sections are made and out of the piece 

JMice are particularly well adapted for feeding experiments with suspected 
meat. In all experimental investigations thus far made in cases of meat pois- 
oning, they have proved to be uniformly susceptible to a high degree (Basenau) » 



SO-CALLED ACCIDENTS 741 

thus separated the material is taken for investigation by means 
of a platinum loop (Forster). The contamination of the interior 
portions of the meat is thus most effectively prevented, since, 
according to the investigations of Gartner and Forster, the meat of 
healthy animals contains bacteria only to a depth of one centi- 
meter, even after a period of ten days. In a piece of meat which 
had been preserved in ice for fourteen days, Forster found millions 
of bacteria on the surface in one milligram of substance, but no 
bacteria, on the other hand, two millimeters under the surface.* 

3. — So-called Accidents. 

Slaughter as a result of so-called accidents is to be judged 
quite differently from the above described cases of emergency 
slaughter on account of serious infectious diseases. As accidents, 
we may enumerate bone fractures, serious penetrating wounds of 
the thorax or abdomen, sudden prolapsus uteri, insuperable 
obstacles to parturition, injuries to the sexual passages, as well as 
the frequent cases of bloating after over-feeding with fodder which 
is readily fermented, and obstructions in the esophagus due to for- 
eign bodies, such as pieces of turnip, apples or potatoes. 

In all these diseases, we have to do merely with the effect of 
purely mechanical causes which destroy the usefulness of the ani- 
mals in question, or might endanger their life, and which, for these 
reasons, quite frequently necessitate immediate slaughter. 

If, in accidental cases of this sort, the animal is slaughtered 
immediately after the accident takes place, there is evidently no 
reason for excluding the meat from the market. It is suitable for 
food, with the exception of those parts in which the lesions occur. 

A wound infection may develop later as a result of the lesion. 
On account of this possibility, the inspector should undertake a 
careful intravital and post-mortem examination in all cases in which 
slaughter is postponed, in order to determine whether wound infec- 
tion has taken place, and should determine upon the course of 
procedure according to this examination (see "Septicemia" and 

* In the viscera, especially in the liver, as shown by Presuhn, the conditions 
are quite different. Even within 24 hours, numerous colonies of the coli and 
proteus bacilli develop in samples taken from beneath the surface, and inocula- 
tion experiments in mice caused the death of these animals within one day. In 
the blood of the inoculated mice, rods of the coli group were demonstrated. 
Thcs3 abnormal results are, however, to be attributed to contamination of the 
organs in slaughtering (laying in water and washing). 



742 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

"Meat Poisoning"). If wound infection lias not taken place, the 
judgment of the meat with reference to its admission as marketable 
or inferior food material should be determined largely according to 
the completeness of bleeding. 

The regulation regarding meat inspection in Baden requires 
compulsory declaration for meat in all cases where animals were 
not slaughtered immediately after the accident, but only after a 
period of from six to twelve hours. 

Lydtin states that the meat of animals which have been 
affected with tympanites often possesses a conspicuous red color 
and a slightly sweetish odor, which appears also in the cooked 
meat. In such cases the meat is no longer of prime market 
quality. 

It is claimed by butchers that the meat of animals which have 
been slaughtered on account of insuperable obstacles to parturition 
is characterized by a poor keeping quality. This fact likewise 
appears to justify compulsory declaration. 

4.— Defective Bleeding. 

In many reports concerning the practice of meat inspection, we 
find among the reasons for condemnation of meat, the phrases 
" defective bleeding " or "agony." These terms are used in place 
of the expression " stuck too late," which was previously in vogue. 
None of these phrases is correct, for the reason that they indicate 
only one non-essential symptom. A statement of the reason of 
defective bleeding is much more important, since the judgment 
must depend thereon. 

Defective bleeding may occur in diseased animals, if the heart 
action is already partly paralyzed, and also in healthy animals, when 
killed during violent exertion or immediately thereafter ; as, for 
example, in animals which are purposely harrassed or driven long 
distances on the hoof. 

For recognition of defective bleeding, see page 132. 

Judgment.— Defective bleeding, as such, requires a sanitary 
police judgment only in animals which were slaughtered during 
great exertion or immediately thereafter, and which, therefore, did 
not bleed freely. In such cases the meat assumes an inferior qual- 
ity as a food material, on account of the abnormal color due to the 
high blood content and on account of its well-known poor keeping- 
quality. In order to prevent such occurrences, butchers, of their 



NATURAL DEATH 743 

own initiative, avoid slaughtering animals immediately after 
exhausting drives. Moreover, in many cities there are official regu- 
lations concerning this matter (compare page 127). 

The meat of animals which show defective bleeding on account 
of diseases is to be judged differently, according to the nature of 
these diseases. 

5. — Natural Death. 

Among the domesticated animals most frequently used for 
food, cattle, sheep, hogs and goats, natural death does n^t happen 
with great frequency. The majority of these animals, when threat- 
ened with some fatal affection, are killed before natural death has 
taken place, in order to be able to utilize their meat as human food 
in all possible cases. 

Diagnosis of Natural Death. — Animals which have died a 
natural death are characterized by the high blood content of all 
parts, especially of the viscera (liver) ; by the hypostasis in the 
inferior parts ; fulness of the hypodermal veins ; the moist character 
of the subcutis and musculature ; absence of a slaughter or shot 
wound; a"»dthe rapid appearance of decomposition which begins 
simultaneously upon the surface and in the interior of the meat and 
viscera. 

Judgment. — As in the case of emergency slaughter, so also in 
the case of dead animals, a general judgment of the meat is impos- 
sible, for the reason that diseases of the most various kinds may 
cause natural death, and judgment must depend upon the diseases 
which cause death in each ease. As a matter of fact, it is usually 
infectious diseases and septicemia which cause the sudden death of 
animals, but not all of these diseases render the meat dangerous. 
Thus, for example, the meat of hogs which have died of swine ery- 
sipelas is not, in and of itself, injurious to health (page 689). 
These considerations are important only in court, but here their 
importance is great ; for, in order to fulfil the condition of fact of 
Section 12 of the Food Law, it is not sufficient to demonstrate that 
the meat came from a dead animal, since the injurious character 
must be an objective property inherent in the meat. 

It should be remembered, however, that the meat of animals 
which have died a natural death may, in consequence of its great 
blood content and the greater or less length of time during which 



744 EMERGENCY SLAUGHTER 

the viscera, especially the abdominal viscera, are left in the body, 
rapidly undergo decomposition after death, often within 24 hours. 
Decomposing meat, however, is dangerous to health (page 757). 
For the rest, the meat of animals which have died a natural death 
in consequence of disease is of such a highly unfit character for 
food that it loses absolutely the quality of human food material, for 
civilized races have an insuperable aversion toward eating carrion, 
quite aside from the pronounced abnormal character which the meat 
of the dead animals exhibits (dark-red color, rapid decomposition, 
etc.). It is only exceptionally that we find among us people who 
buy and eat the meat of animals which have died a natural death, 
with full knowledge of the facts. The gypsies have no such 
scruples. It is a well-known fact that gypsies even disinter and 
eat the carcasses of animals which have died a natural death or 
which, according to their expression, have been "slaughtered by 
God." 

If an animal has died, not on account of disease, but on 
account of chemical or physical agencies, the judgment to be ren- 
dered will be different. Such cases occur in animals which have 
died as a result of poisoning, lightniug, fracture of a cranial bone, 
or of the first cervical vertebra, puncturing wounds of the heart, 
insufficiency of the cardiac valves, cardiac paralysis on account of 
the presence of echinococci in the myocardium and air emboli in 
cases of operations, suffocation as a result of strangulation or 
tympanites, and internal hemorrhages in consequence of rupture 
of the spleen and liver from trauma, etc. 

The meat of these animals, except in cases of death from rup- 
ture of the spleen aud liver, possesses its full content of blood and 
its appearance is thereby altered. It has poor keeping qualities. 
For the rest, however, it comes from animals which are in perfect 
health before death. No objection can be raised against the 
admission of such meat to the market as an inferior food material, 
provided the viscera are removed immediately after death and the 
features which stamp the animal as carrion are thereby eliminated. 



XIT. 
POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS IN MEAT. 



From the moment of slaughter to the time of its preparation 
ior the table, meat may undergo a great variety of alterations. 

Contamination During Slaughter. — Meat may become con- 
taminated as a result of careless handling, or with bile or the 
intestinal contents during the act of slaughter. Moreover, it quite 
often happens that in excising abscesses the surrounding tissue 
becomes contaminated with pus.* 

Acid Fermentation. — In another place, attention has been 
called to the fact that an acid fermentation regularly develops post 
mortem in the musculature and liver. With regard to the nature 
of this acid fermentation, we have the important results obtained 
by the investigation of W. Eber. 

In the first place, he distinguishes normal, simple acid fermen- 
tation and abnormal, stinking acid fermentation. As is well knowD, 
simple acid fermentation occurs in meat at the time of the appear- 
ance of rigor mortis. According to Eber, the disappearance of 
rigor mortis is ushered in with processes which, according to the 
prevailing idea of the matter, are of an acid nature. Under the 
influence of this acid fermentation the meat acquires a peculiar 
agreeable flavor (ripening). Later (after three weeks or longer) 
traces of H 2 S appear (hautgout). Ripening of the meat is 
observed in whole quarters or in other large pieces with a dry sur- 
face, since the process in question presupposes a large water con- 



* Such contamination is to be avoided wherever possible. However, if it has 
occurred, the soiled layer of meat should be removed with a knife. In cases 
where the meat is contaminated with the contents of the intestines or abscess, 
"washing is not sufficient to restore its normal character, since the bacteria which 
have found their way to the meat are not thereby removed, but, on the other 
hand, find their favorable conditions for multiplication on the artificially moist- 
ened meat. 

745 



746 POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS 

tent and exclusion of the air. In small, superficially moist pieces- 
of meat, decomposition sets in after a short time. 

Acid Fermentation in Game. — Decomposition processes in the 
meat of game run exactly the same course as in the meat of domes- 
tic food animals. Acid fermentation in the meat of wild game is 
favored by the fact that this meat, in spite of its high blood content, 
decomposes much more slowly than the meat of domestic food 
animals. In this respect the horse stands next to wild game. More- 
over, the meat of young animals resists the process of decomposi- 
tion longer than that of older animals. As a rule, it is only on the 
surface and after a long transportation by rail and under high tem- 
peratures that we observe typical superficial decomposition, which 
does not penetrate deeply, and, according to Eber, may be com- 
pletely removed by washing with water containing acetic acid. 

Acid fermentation may be studied under especially favorable 
conditions m the liver. When just exenterated, the liver has an. 
alkaline reaction. After twenty-four hours, however, when pre- 
served in the usual manner, the reaction is slightly acid. After two- 
to three days, small decidedly acid foci of an Isabel-yellow color- 
appear in the parenchyma. The foci increase in size and after from 
eight to fourteen days the dark brown liver is altered so as to 
appear of an Isabel-yellow color. Eber emphasizes the fact that 
acid livers are neither injurious nor spoiled in the sense of the food 
law, and that they are nothing more than ripened livers. 

The acid fermentation denominated by Eber as stinking, differs 
essentially from that just described. This is observed in the meat 
of game which has been stored while in a warm condition or whick 
has been " heated." In such cases the hair is readily detached, the- 
subcutis shows a green color, the musculature is copper-red, while 
its cut surfaces are grayish or dark-green. The odor of freshly cut 
surfaces is peculiarly disagreeable, resembling that of decomposi- 
tion, and is accentuated by the addition of acid. The reaction is 
acid. Ammonia is absent. On the other hand, HJ3 may be. 
demonstrated in large quantities. According to Eber, "heated" 
wild game is to be considered as unsuitable for food in the most 
general sense on account of its pronounced variation from the 
normal. It appears, however, not to possess dangerous properties 
(Peters). 

In addition to wild game, stinking acid fermentation occurs in 
slaughtered domesticated animals when the mea*t, while still warni, 
is stored in large pieces and in closed receptacles, or, in general,. 



ABSOKPTION OF ODORS 747 

when it is subjected to conditions under which it can not cool. This 
alteration is characterized by the term " suffocated." 

Absorption of Odors. — "When improperly handled, meat may 
undergo post mortem alterations in its odor. Attention has already 
been called to the fact that not only living animal bodies, but also 
warm and cold tissues, possess the power of absorbing and retaining; 
odors. We have numerous unexceptionable proofs of this fact. It 
is well known that meat absorbs the combustion products of tobacco 
smoke. Moreover, Dinter reported that the meat of a hog which 
had been carried for several days in a freshly-cleaned car, disin- 
fected with carbolic acid, developed a highly disagreeable odor when 
boiled or roasted. In the year 1889, the meat of eight hogs was 
returned to a dealer in Berlin for the reason that it possessed a 
pronounced flavor of chlorin. The meat had hung near rooms which 
had recently been painted with a 10 per cent, solution of milk of 
chlorid of lime. Such cases have since been observed in large- 
numbers.* They serve as an urgent warning against transporting; 
animals in odorous cars, and against the utilization of odorous dis- 
infectants in abattoirs. Moreover, the observations mentioned 
above show that in the construction of cold storage plants all odor- 
ous materials must be rigidly excluded. 

Admixture of Harmful Metals. — Furthermore, during the 
preparation and preservation of meat, it may absorb injurious 
metals. Thus, Masse reports a case of poisoning as a result of eat- 
ing meat which was roasted on a spit over coals of dry wood which 
had been painted with white lead. Cases of chronic lead poisoning 
attributable to pieces of lead which had been loosened from impro- 
perly constructed mincing machines have been reported also from 
England. Finally, Ungar and Bodlander demonstrated that when 
conserves are packed in cans, there is always danger of the absorp- 
tion of enough tin to be dangerous to health. 

Contamination from Insects. — The occurrence of dipterous 
larvae on meat in cases where it is carelessly handled during summer, 
and the occurrence of meal mites in hams may be mentioned 
incidentally. Sticker has called attention to the occurrence of the 
latter. According to Schmitz and Janssen, this is explained by the 



* Israelitic dealers usually place leeks in the abdominal cavity of exenteratecl 
fowls for the purpose of making the meat keep longer. The meat thereby 
acquires the pronounced odor of leek. 



748 POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS 

fact that in certain regions, such as on the lower Rhine, it is cus- 
tomary to preserve hams in meal or bran. 

Does the presence of dipterous larvae on meat indicate long 
standing decomposition? To this question, which is frequent^ 
proposed to meat inspectors for consideration, the following answer 
may be made : Among the flies, the larvse of which develop in 
animal materials, the house fly (Musca domestica), the blow fly (31. 
vomitoria) and the flesh fly (Sarcophaga carnaria) may be mentioned. 
The first two mentioned flies deposit their eggs in fresh and 
decomposing materials of animal origin and the larvse hatch within 
twenty-four hours, while the flesh fly deposits living larvae in 
decomposing material. It, therefore, appears that the mere demon- 
stration of dipterous larvse is no proof that the material has been 
long in the process of decomposition. The length of the larvae, 
which on the first day is 1 mm. and within ten days reaches 10 mm., 
may give an approximate indication of the length of the period of 
decomposition. 

Localization of Micro-organisms. — By far the most important 
post mortem alterations are produced by the localization of micro- 
organisms on meat. As a result of its peculiar chemical composi- 
tion, meat furnishes an unusually favorable medium for fungi of all 
kinds. As mentioned on page 198, Bocklart reported that about 
thirty of the species of bacteria which he tested commonly develop 
luxuriantly in meat broth.* The localization of fungi on meat is 
most likely to occur in cases where it possesses a high moisture con- 
tent as a result of improper preservation. 

Among the alterations of the last named sort belong moldiness 
of the surface of meat, as well as red and blue coloration due to the 
localization of Bacillus prodigiosus and B. cyanogenes. These altera- 
tions, however, for practical purposes, are of slight importance, 
since they usually cause no injury to health, in and of themselves,? 
and since the growths in question take place simply on the surface 



* Since the pathogenic organisms of human infectious diseases also thrive 
well on meat, it is necessary to take the precaution that persons who are suffer- 
ing from infectious diseases (typhoid, cholera, scarlet fever, infectious skin 
eruptions, etc.), or who have even completely recovered from such diseases, are 
prevented from coming in contact with meat. 

f In contrast with the red colored meat of food animals, red colored sardines 
have been demonstrated to be injurious. Loir is of the opinion that the red col- 
oration of sardines is caused by a toxic variety of B. prodigiosus which settles 
upon the sardines in large quantities before the latter are preserved in boiling oil 



PHOSPHORESCENT MEAT 749 

and may easily be removed by cutting away the superficial layers of 
meat 

The localization of photogenic bacteria on meat is of more impor- 
tance, and the decomposition of meat by putrefactive bacteria is of 
quite especial importance. These two alterations require, there- 
fore, a more detailed discussion. 

Gray Coloration of Sausages. — In sausages intended for long 
keeping a gray coloration frequently appears on the peripheral 
portions, without the slightest change in odor or taste of the other 
parts of the sausage. The cause of this striking phenomenon is not 
understood. Falk and Oppermann suspected that Bacillus mesenteri- 
cus, which had been note 1 by Serafini as a regular occurrence on 
sausages, was the cause of the alteration in the color of these sau- 
sages. Meyer attributes the gray coloration of sausages to a loss of 
salt as a result of endosmotic processes. He found as much as 3 
per cent, less salt in the periphery of gray sausages than in the 
interior, while in red sausages the difference amounted to only 1 
per cent. According to Glage, volatile sulphur compounds are con- 
cerned in the gray coloration of sausages (sulphuretted hydrogen 
and mercaptan). These are given off, as shown by Glage, not only 
from fresh but also from conserved meat, and the sulphuretted 
hydrogen may change the red coloring material of the muscle in 
sausages to a gray color. The "latent green colorations " (Glage) 
in poorly salted hams and pieces of pickled meat, and which appear 
only after exposure to oxygen, are to be attributed to the action of 
sulphuretted hydrogen. 

Decomposition of Fat. — In addition to moldiness and alteration 
as a result of chromogenic bacteria, fat exhibits a specific alteration 
(rancidity). Formerly this alteration was ascribed to the appear- 
ance of free fatty acids and the degree of rancidity was estimated 
according to the percentage of fatty acids present. Scala, however, 
found, as a cause of the rancidity, an aldehyde, the presence of 
which may be demonstrated by collecting the distillate obtained 
by means of steam in a hydrochloric metaphenylen-diamin solution. 
The degree of rancidity may be determined colorimetrically by the 
yellow coloration of the reagent. 

1.— Phosphorescent Meat. 

Record of Cases. — The literature contains a large number of 
observations concerning meat which possessed the striking property 



750 TOST MORTEM ALTERATIONS 

of emitting light. Fabricius ab Aquapendente, in the year 1592, 
reported that in Rome a portion of a slaughtered lamb which had 
been preserved in the raw state, became phosphorescent. In the 
year 1780, according to another report of a meat dealer in Orleans, 
the whole meat supply became phosphorescent. The physiologist, 
E. von Briicke, reported that in Vienna at the beginning of the 50's, 
a large number of sausages were observed in a phosporescent state. 
Nuesch in Basel in 1877 observed that pork which was kept in a 
receptacle in a pantry emitted a green light of such intensity that 
people were able to recognize each other by it and to read the time 
on their watches. Recently many reports have been published con- 
cerning similar cases. Phosphorescence in meat in cold storage 
plants of certain public abattoirs has proved to be a great calamity. 

From the reported cases the following may be mentioned : 
Two women purchased a pound each of pork and beef and pre- 
served it in a damp room. When examined by daylight, both 
kinds of meat presented "unobjectionable, fine appearing, fresh 
and perfectly wholesome " products. When examined in the dark, 
it appeared that the pieces of cervical vertebrae in the pork and the 
surrounding tissue emitted as bright a light as white-hot iron. The 
paper on which the meat had lain remained phosphorescent for 
gome time, ten to fifteen minutes (Gotteswinter). 

Beef sausages were kept in a porcelain dish in an unused oven 
with an open door and after a period of four days showed a pro- 
nounced phosphorescence. They shone brightly in a dark room 
and a number of intensive, bluish-white, shining, pearl-like foci 
were observed in them. The sausages were still quite fresh, 
smelled like fresh meat, and were eaten in large quantities without 
any ill effects, by the butcher who gladly took them back in order 
"to prevent any legal proceedings. 

Etiology. — In 1877, Nuesch demonstrated phosphorescent 
bacteria in phosphorescent meat. Similar organisms were found 
Irv Pfliiger in fish meat, the phosphorescent property of which has 
long been known. In 1879, Baucel and Hnsson demonstrated that 
the phosphorescence of lobster meat is always to be attributed to 
the action of bacteria. It is well known that the phosphorescence 
of the sea is caused by bacteria. 

The following species of phosphorescent bacteria occur in sea 
"water : Photobaderium pfluegeri and P. phosphorescens (on salt-water 
fish in general), Photobaderium fischeri and P. balticum (Baltic Sea). 
Finally, P. indicum, in the West Indian Ocean (Carribean Sea) and 



DECOMPOSING MEAT 751 

J*, luminosum (North Sea). F. Ludwig demonstrated that P. pflue- 
geri, which, according to him, caused the phosphorescence of the 
meat of haddock, may be transmitted to beef, pork and veal. 
In the case which was reported by Nuesch, infection of the meat 
took place from the rotten timber in the ceiling of the pantry which 
undoubtedly was the source of phosphorescent bacteria. Phospho- 
rescence disappears with the appearance of decomposition. 

For destroying the phosphorescence, it is recommended that 
infected substances and the rooms be treated with acetic or salicylic 
acid. 

Judgment. — Phosphorescent meat is not dangerous to human 
health. On account of its objective variation from the normal 
condition, it is a spoiled (inferior) food material. 

2. — Decomposing Meat. 

General Remarks. — The bacteria of decomposition thrive on 
meat, perhaps the best of all bacteria. If care is exercised in the 
treatment of meat (allowing it to cool in well-ventilated rooms 
and preserving it in cold storage), we are in a position to check 
the development of putrefactive bacteria, which are present every- 
where, and to maintain the meat in a fresh and unaltered condition 
i'or a certain length of time. With careless treatment, on the other 
hand, especially if freshly slaughtered pieces of meat are heaped 
together while still warm and if they are placed in poorly venti- 
lated rooms with a high temperature, the meat under such " hygie- 
nic mistreatment" becomes simply a nutrient medium for putre- 
factive bacteria. 

It should be observed that the harmful effects of improper 
preservation are not confined to fresh meat alone, but also to 
-cooked and roasted meat. As emphasized by Schmidt-Mulheim, 
the common practice of heaping up hot sausages and pieces of 
roast beef in layers in closed receptacles for use in festivities, 
must, from a bacteriological standpoint, be considered as a very 
dangerous method of preserving meat. 

The property of meat as a specially favorable medium for the 
development of decomposition plays a large national economic and 
hygienic role. Von Hofmann, in Leipsic, estimates the loss of 
perishable food material as a result of improper care at 10 per 
cent. Moreover, the cases of so-called sausage poisoning, thf^ 
numerous cases of sickness after eating decomposed ham, "high" 



752 POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS 

game, poorly preserved pieces of meat, and recently the mysteri- 
ous cases of mince meat poisoning, furnish abundant evidence of 
the danger from eating decomposing meat. 

Putrefactive Bacteria. — The number of bacteria which are 
concerned in the putrefaction of proteids is very large. The most 
important species, however, is Proteus vulgaris (Hauser). In addi- 
tion to numerous species of bacteria ■which liquefy gelatin, Kraus 
found in decomposing meat, five non-liquefying species, one of 
which possessed great similarity to Gartner's Bacillus enteritidis and 
was distinguished from the others by the fact that it killed mice 
in combination with the putrefactive bacteria which liquefy gelatin. 

Serafini demonstrated B. mesentericus 

Fig. 248. of Fluegge in addition to other 

' •, species of bacteria in all sausages. 

This species, as is well known, is 
not pathogenic, but induces decom- 
position in sausages. 

From meat which had caused 
'/ i y n bloody vomit, bloody diarrhea, great 

depression, and some fever in 10 
persons with a fatal outcome in one 
case, Levy isolated Proteus vulgaris. 

Proteus vulgaris from an agar This species was found also in the 

culture 24 hours old. . , ,. ./. U1 ,-■ ■■ , 

X 500 diameters. incrustation ot filth in the ice chest 

in which the meat had been kept. 
Hamburger and Wolff examined meat which had caused sum- 
mer cholera in the inmates of the mansion of the Utrecht Deacon- 
ess. A non-motile organism was isolated from the meat, which 
was 1 to 1.5 )x long and 0.4 }x broad. The species was easily 
stained, even by the Gram method. On bouillon cultures, a thin 
j>ellicle was formed with vertical bands and a brush-like growth 
was produced on gelatin. The bacteria grow rapidly on meat and 
develop a pronounced odor of ammonia. Raw or boiled infected 
meat and meat broth made from it are pathogenic for dogs and 
mice (diarrhea). On account of the formation of granules on the 
pellicle of meat broth cultures, Hamburger and Wolff named the 
organism Bacillus cellulorformans. These authors consider it prob- 
able that the species is a putrefactive organism. 

The Process of Putrefaction in Meat from Different 
Sources. — Under normal conditions — that is, in slaughtering live 




DECOMPOSING MEAT 753 

animals — putrefactfon begins after a certain period in the parts of 
the meat which are accessible to the air and gradually penetrates 
into the interior along the course of loose strands of connective 
tissue (compare page 740). In the meat of animals which are 
affected with febrile conditions, especially those of a septic charac- 
ter, putrefaction appears more promptly and penetrates into the 
deeper parts more quickly. In dead animals which are allowed to 
lie without exenteration, superficial and deep-lying putrefaction 
appears simultaneously and after a very short period, partly in con- 
sequence of the full blood content of the meat and partly in con- 
sequence of the penetration of the putrefactive bacteria from the 
intestines into the neighboring venous trunks. In the meat of ani- 
mals which have died a natural death, the deep-lying putrefaction 
is characterized by the formation of gas, for the reason that not 
only aerobic, but also anaerobic, gas-forming, cadaver bacilli pene- 
trate into the blood of cadavers. In deer which are not imme- 
diately dressed, hunters at least open the abdominal cavity in 
order to air the carcass, an empirical measure which is based on 
the fact that the carcass cools off more rapidly after the admission 
of air into the body cavity and the migration of anaerobic bacteria 
from the intestine into the neighboring musculature is prevented. 
In small game, such as hare and birds, the alimentary canal may 
remain in the abdominal cavity without producing the above men- 
tioned harmful results. This is explained by the rapid cooling of 
small animal bodies, which prevents the growth of cadaveric bac- 
teria. 

Partial Decomposition. — Up to the time of the introduction of 
meat inspection in Norway, the bad habit prevailed of allowing 
fasting calves to lie unexenterated after slaughter until the abdomi- 
nal muscles and kidneys acquired a stinking, discolored character. 
This practice frequently led to cases of illness after eating the meat. 
Thus, Nielsen reports that the foreparts of a calf treated in this 
manner were eaten without bad consequences, while the consump- 
tion of the loins and abdominal musculature, or those parts which 
were in immediate contact with the alimentary tract, caused serious 
cases of illness, whether eaten in a boiled or roasted condition. 

Influence op Air Upon the Decomposition op Meat. — Mel sen 
attempted to determine whether and under what conditions during 
the decomposition of animal proteids poisonous decomposition 
products of the group of albumoses, soluble in water, are formed. 



754 POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS 

During this investigation lie found that when a limited amount of 
air was admitted, albumoses exhibiting toxic action when injected 
subcutaneously,did not appear on the fifth, tenth or fifteenth day. 

When the air was freely admitted, however, albumoses with 
pronounced poisonous properties developed in meat which was only 
five days old. 

Decomposition Toxins. — In the decomposition of proteids, 
poisonous substances develop (decomposition toxins), which have 
already been discussed under " Putrid Intoxication" (page 553). 

Isolation of Decomposition Toxins from Decomposing Meat. 
— For isolating decomposition toxins from decomposing meat, 
Scholl recommended pressing out the fluid and the extraction of the 
material thus obtained with pure water at a temperature of 40° C. 
for a period of twenty minutes. Scholl emphasizes the fact that 
according to this method it is an easy matter to demonstrate toxins 
even in small quantities of decomposing meat. From one piece of 
beef of the size of an ordinary steak which had been putrefying for 
two days, it was possible to extract so much toxin at a temperature 
of 40° C. that a guinea pig was paralyzed within two hours after 
receiving an injection into the body cavity. Jeserich and Niemann 
found that the toxins which arise during the decomposition of meat 
persist in the meat for a short time in a very virulent condition, but 
soon disappear on account of farther decomposition. For this rea- 
son it is recommended that decomposing material which is to be 
investigated should be laid immediately in absolute alcohol, since in 
this material the toxin remains unaltered for a long period. For 
further testing the alcoholic extract, it is evaporated and the 
material left behind is dissolved in water. Subcutaneous injections 
of small quantities (one to two cc.) of the aqueous solution kill 
guinea pigs and rabbits if virulent decomposition products are 
present. 

Demonstration of Decomposition. — In addition to the above 
named toxic elements, substances are produced under the influence 
of decomposition bacteria, viz., aromatic substances and fatty acids, 
mercaptan, ammonia and carbolic acid. The methods for the posi- 
tive demonstration of decomposition depend upon the presence of 
ammonia. These methods are of great value, since our olfactory 
organs may often fail us in the investigation of odorous or stinking 
materials, and since alterations of color (modification into a dirty 
gray or green) as well as of consistency are not always conspicuously 



DECOMPOSING MEAT 755 

present. According to W. Eber, the odor is also unreliable, since, 
quite aside from individual differences in the perception of odors, it 
is not a simple test. Decomposing meat smells differently than 
decomposing crabs. Moreover, fish emit a peculiar variable odor, 
and, finally, decomposing oysters are widely different in their odor- 
ous products from decomposing green herring or from the odor of 
a carcass which has been dead for several days. The differences in 
the odors of decomposition arise also from their different behavior 
toward acids and alkalies. Some are not affected by the addition 
of acids or alkalies, while others are intensified. Moreover, some 
contain mercaptan and others not. Strange to say, mercaptan is 
entirely wanting in the intensely odorous products of superficial 
decomposition of meat. Finally, in the decomposition of schlack- 
wurst and salt meat, the disagreeable odor may not appear in the 
raw material, but is first observed after cooking. 

Schmidt-Mulheim called attention to the alkaline reaction of 
decomposing meat due to the formation of ammonia. Decomposi- 
tion can not be hastened, however, by alkalinity alone, since in addi- 
tion to fresh organs, blood also and lymph extravasations, as well 
as pickled meat and smoked hams, may possess an alkaline reaction. 
Moreover, the reaction in decomposing materials varies. An acid 
reaction (mixed processes), an amphoteric (brine and juicy materials) 
or an alkaline reaction may prevail. The latter is the usual one, 
at least in the decomposition of meat. 

W. Eber, accordingly, proposed an objective method of investi- 
gation which is based on the demonstration of free ammonia, the so- 
called ammonia test, and which gave good results in Eber's hands, 
in investigating decomposing meat and fish. 

Method of Making the Sal- Ammoniac Test. — Reagent : One 
part pure hydrochloric acid, three parts alcohol and one part of 
ether, mixed together and preserved in a closed vessel. 

A test tube 2 cc. in diameter, 10 cc. in length, receives enough 
of the reagent to cover the bottom of the glass to a depth of about 
1 cm. It is then corked and shaken once. A sample of the material 
to be examined is then rubbed with a clean glass rod, or, if its con- 
sistency is still quite firm, a part of the material the size of a pea is 
fixed to the rod by adhesion. The rod thus prepared is quickly 
dipped into the glass filled with the fumes of hydrochloric acid, 
alcohol and ether, so that its lower end sinks to a depth of 1 cm. 
beneath the surface of the fluid and so that it does not touch the 
walls of the vessel. 



756 POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS 

For practical purposes in making the test, a cylindrical vessel 
furnished with a perforated cork holding a glass tube may be 
used in the place of the test tube. If ammonia is present, a cloudi- 
ness appears after a few seconds, which sinks down at the end 
of the glass rod or surrounds it. This reaction increases in inten- 
sity with the degree of putrefaction. After a short time the fumes 
may fill the whole vessel and may be temporarily precipitated as a 
white layer on the walls. 

The sample should not be colder than the test tube (condensa- 
tion of the fumes of the reagent). Moreover, the test for decom- 
position should not be made in rooms which contain free ammonia. 

The decomposition test of Eber can not be considered as 
proving unquestionably the presence of decomposition, for the rea- 
son that the test may give a positive result in undecomposed 
meat (for example, mutton), and especially in meat under brine 
(pickled meat, pickled herring, sardines, etc.), on account of the fre- 
quent normal occurrence of trimethylamine. In the presence of 
other phenomena of decomposition, however, it serves to confirm 
the diagnosis. 

In demonstrating decomposition in larger pieces of meat, atten- 
tion should be called to the fact that a superficial examination is 
not sufficient, but that deep incisions must be made into the meat. 

Demonstration of Decomposition in Canned Meat. — On 
account of the frequent occurrence of poisoning after the con- 
sumption of canned meat, the means of recognizing decomposition 
processes in canned meat are of great practical value. The French 
Army consumes annually 3,000,000 cans of conserved meat, contain- 
ing five rations each. In 1897, 201 cases of sickness, and in 1898, 
198 cases appeared, one of which ran a fatal course (Vaillard). 
During the Spanish- American war, extensive outbreaks of sickness 
appeared in the American army after eating canned meat. The 
pathological symptoms consisted either of non-febrile digestive 
disturbances, or of febrile gastro-enteritis. According to Ballard, 
the ends of the cans in case of well conserved meat should be 
depressed on account of the condensation of the steam after the can 
is soldered. In case of poorly cooked conserves which are sub- 
sequently affected with decomposition, the cover of the cans is dis- 
tended outward as a result of the gases of decomposition. 
Unscrupulous manufacturers frequently boil such swelled cans a 
second time. In order to do this, however, a second opening must 
be made in the can, which hole is later soldered. Accordingly, a^ 



DECOMPOSING MEAT 757 

preventive measure may be adopted against possible poisoning 
from decomposed canned meat, requiring the exclusion from the 
market of swelled as well as twice-soldered cans. After opening 
suspected cans, one finds that the gelatin surrounding the meat 
is discolored and liquefied (compare page 760). If poisonous sub- 
stances were present in the meat at the time of its preparation, 
the recognition of injurious canned meat by the above mentioned 
process is impossible. 

Judgment. — According to the experimental investigations dis- 
cussed on page 552, decomposing meat must be considered a 
poisonous food material. As shown by experience, it has in many 
cases caused injury to health and even the death of man. If, on 
the other hand, it is asserted that decomposing meat, known 
euphemistically as hautgout, is a delicacy for gourmands and often 
eaten without injurious consequences, this fact is of no importance- 
in sanitary police work ; for the positive fact that decomposing 
meat is calculated to injure human health is, despite the numer- 
ous observations of its harmless effects, a quite sufficient basis for 
the exclusion of all decomposing meat from the market.* Attention 
has rightly been called to the fact that admirers of hautgout should 
be permitted to allow the meat to ripen privatim before eating, but 
that it is the duty of the authorities to exclude decomposing meat 
from the market as a dangerous food material. Finally, the fact 
should be emphasized that decomposition toxins are not destroyed 
by ordinary cooking. f 

Van Ermengem, to whom we owe the brilliant investigations 
of the etiology of meat poisoning and botulism, is of the opinion 
that decomposition is of but slight importance in the etiology of 
cases of sickness after eating meat. As proof of this position he 
calls attention to the fact that, according to Navarre, decomposing 
fish serve as a delicacy for 300,000,000 Indians, Indo-Chinese, 
Malays, Polynesians and negroes of all kinds. Forster, however, 
calls attention to the fact that among these people decomposing 
fish, like the pungent cheese of the European table, are used as a 



* If webave to do merely with a slight superficial decomposition, such as 
occurs frequently in wild game, the meat may be easily put in marketable con- 
dition by cutting off the superficial layer, or, according to W. Eber, by washing 
in acetic acid. 

f Scholl found that the poisonous property of decomposition toxins was not 
completely destroyed until after subjection to a temperature of 100° C. for a 
period of 1% hours. 



758 POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS 

condimental addition to rice, and that we know nothing of the 
decomposition processes which take place in this and similar food 
materials, as, for example, the fermented eggs of the Chinese. 



APPENDIX. 
1. — Sausage Poisoning (Botulism, Allantiasis). 

Historical. — The earliest reports concerning so-called sausage 
poisoning are contained in the work of the Schwabian poet and 
physician, Justinus Kerner. According to Senkpiehl, who made a 
careful compilation of the literature concerning botulism up to the 
year 1877, Kerner' s "Neue Beobachtungpn iiber die in Wiirttern- 
burg so haufig vorfallenden todlichen Vergiftungen durch den 
Genuss geraucherter Wiirste," Tubingen, 1820, and his other trea- 
tise, "Das Fettgift oder die Fettsaure und deren Wirkung auf den 
tierischen Organismus," Tubingen, 1822, appear to contain the first 
published reports concerning this matter. 

Kerner described as the first case one which occurred in Klein- 
enzheim, in 1793, and made reference also to an epidemic in Moos- 
berg, Breitenberg, Reichenbach, Stammheim and Sulzer Oberamt, a 
total of 76 cases with 37 deaths. In the second treatise, the author 
enumerated 98 other cases with 34 deaths. In two instances epi- 
demics appeared, during which 13 persons became ill and 6 died 
after eating sour black pudding, while 15 cases with 5 deaths 
occurred after eating decomposed sausage of other kinds. 

Shortly after this work of Kerner (1824), Weiss reported 29 cases 
of sickness with 3 deaths after eating spoiled sausage in the town of 
Murrhardt. Numerous cases of sickness from eating bad sausage 
were reported during the 50's by the Wurtemburg physicians Bach, 
Faber, Schutz, Berg and Beuss. Later Miiller prepared an account 
of 62 cases in the Wurtemburg Korrespondenzblatt in 1863. In the 
same journal, which may be considered as a A'eritable treasury of 
literature concerning sausage poisoning, Josenhaus and Baumann 
(1869) reported two epidemics as a result of eating hirnleberwurst 
and ordinary leberwurst which was six weeks old. In the same jour- 
nal, Hedinger noted the poisoning of several persons by leberwurst, 
and Nauwerck reported an outbreak of sickness among 10 persons in 
Gamertingen after eating schwartenmagen. The last cases of sau- 
sage poisoning in Wurtemburg occurred in Reutlingen, Horb and 



BOTULISM 759 

INordstetten. In Reutlingen, 20 persons were affected with botul- 
ism after eating leberwurst, while 100 persons were similarly- 
affected in Horb and Nordstetten. 

Occurrence. — In comparison with Wiirteinburg, other countries 
show a surprisingly small number of cases ; especially in northern 
Germany, the occurrence of sausage poisoning is comparatively 
rare, while from Bavaria and Baden, several, but not nearly so 
many cases as from Wiirtemburg, have been reported. However, that 
the disease formerly occurred in northern Germany is shown by 
two publications of the Royal Imperial Government at Arnsberg, of 
January 18, 1822, and December 16, 1825, in which a warning is 
issued against poisoning as a result of eating semi-fluid, sour and 
malodorous sausage. 

If we ask why botulism occurs so frequently and causes so 
many deaths in Wiirtemburg, an explanation is to be found, in the 
first place, in the great development of sausage manufacture and in 
the consumption of sausages in Wiirtemburg, and, also, in the 
ignorance previously exhibited in preparing certain kinds of sausage, 
as leberwurst and blutwurst, for consumption at a considerably 
later date. I emphasize the word " previously," for the gradually 
diminishing number of cases of sausage poisoning in the last decades 
proves that a change has taken place in this regard. In northern 
Germany, on the other side of the Main, it is the custom to eat 
sausages prepared from the viscera, as, for example, leberwurst and 
lungenwurst, only in a fresh condition. At any rate, smoked leber- 
wurst in northern Germany is exceedingly rare, except in Thiiringen. 
The so-called long keeping sausages of northern Germany (mett- 
wurst and schlackwurst), which are the only kinds which are 
preserved for the period of months or one year, consist of muscula- 
ture, which, when properly conserved, resists decomposition much 
longer than lungs, liver or blood. In the etiology of sausage pois- 
oning in Wiirtemburg, however, smoked visceral sausages (leber- 
wurst, hirnleberwurst, schwartenmagen, presssack and blunzen) 
play an important role. These sausages are poorly adapted to 
keeping for a long time, since they contain material which spoils 
readily. Moreover, the customary method of interrupting the 
smoking, in which the fire is not maintained during the night, is in 
part the cause of the poor conservation of sausages in Wiirtemburg. 
Finally, in many cases, especially in cases of poisoning by means of 
large sausages like blunzen and presssack, the cooking and associ- 
ated destruction of the putrefactive bacteria were probably 



760 POST-MOETEM ALTEEATIONS 

incomplete in consequence of a lack of knowledge of the extremely- 
slow penetration of heat into meat and meat products. 

An illness apparently identical with poisoning by decomposed 
sausage has been frequently observed after eating meat prepared 
by other methods. Thus, after eating decomposing meat and the 
broth obtained from it, or boiled, warmed up, or re-roasted meat ; 
also after eating meat from a can vf conserves which had been 
opened for eight days ; after eating pickled products from poorly 
preserved calf liver ; freshly boiled pork which had been kept in an 
oven ; after eating imperfectly cooked teal ; a rabbit pie preserved 
for three months under fat ; after eating a partridge which was 
found dead ; after eating the sauce of roast mutton left over from 
the previous day ; after eating pickled meat which had fermented in 
a cask ; after eating spoiled smoked goose and mutilated, bloody 
parts of game. 

Cases of poisoning are especially frequent after eating decom- 
posing ham. In this connection, attention should be called to the 
fact that frequently it is not the whole ham, but only the superficial 
parts and the parts which lie next to the bones, which are injurious. 

Moreover, Wiedener made a report of an epidemic of illness 
after eating roast goose. Among the 180 persons affected, about 
one-half exhibited symptoms of convulsive pain, vomition and 
diarrhea. The geese, thirty in number, had been left hanging 
unexenterated in the cellar for one day. Bouchereau and Noir 
reported an outbreak of poisoning in which ten soldiers were 
affected after eating canned meat. The meat had no disagreeable 
odor or smell. The gruel-like mass, however, in the cans was of a 
brownish color and was liquefied. 

Etiology. — With regard to the etiology of botulism, the opinion 
formerly prevailed that this disease was caused by the products of 
ordinary proteid decomposition. This assumption was disproved 
by the epoch-making investigation of the Belgian scientist, Van 
Ermengem, who has earned great credit for his studies on the 
etiological explanation of the diseases which appear after eating 
meat. 

Yan Ermengem investigated portions of a ham which had 
caused slight or acute symptoms of botulism in ten persons in 
December, 1895, in the village of Elezelles. Three of the patients 
died. The part of the ham which remained was examined by him 
and proved not to be decomposed, but had a musty, rancid odor. 
The ham was pale in color and more readily discerptible than. 



BOTULISM 761 

ordinary ham. Furthermore, according to the statements of all the 
consumers, it possessed a bad taste. Experiments were instituted 
with the poisonous material and these experiments overthrew the 
assumption of Housemann that the theory of sausage poisoning 
could not be subjected to an experimental test. Van Ermengem 
found that cats were well adapted for experimental investigations 
in this field; that phenomena appeared in them which paralleled 
the pathognomonic symptoms of botulism, viz., mydriasis and 
paresis. As second in value for this purpose, mention is made of 
pigeons, which, in addition to paresis of the nerves, exhibit other 
interesting paralytic phenomena, viz., ptosis and inequality of the 
pupils. Rabbits, guinea pigs and apes are also very susceptible. 
These animals may be easily poisoned per os and show a pro- 
nounced paretic disturbance. From the toxic ham and the spleen 
of one of the dead pigeons, Van Ermengem succeeded in cultivating 
anaerobic bacteria which possessed the power of producing a very 
active toxin. This toxin induced in the experimental animals all 
the symptoms of botulism. It is thus demonstrated that the Bacillus 
botulinus discovered by Van Ermengem is one or the only cause of 
botulism. 

Bacteriology. — Bacillus botulinus is 4 to 9 yw long and 0.9 to 
X2 M thick. It is a straight rod with somewhat rounded ends and 
slightly resembles the edema bacillus. The rods are usually iso- 
lated. Occasionally, however, they are found in pairs or short 
threads. B. botulinus is an obligate anaerobe and forms oval spores 
in the end of the rod, more rarely in the middle, which are some- 
what thicker than the rods themselves. Sporulation occurs only 
under a temperature of 35° C. and takes place more vigorously in 
strongly alkaline media containing two per cent, grape sugar. 
The organism is slightly motile, possesses 4 to 8 flagella. Cultures 
of B. botulinus develop no odor of decomposition, but rather a pene- 
trating odor resembling butyric acid. Furthermore, it forms an 
extraordinarily poisonous toxin (toxigenic bacillus). In order to 
insure a luxuriant and toxic growth, a certain degree of alkalinity 
is required (10 to 15 cc. of a oue-tenth normal soda solution per 
100 cc. of the medium). The optimum temperature lies between 
20° and 30° C. The cultures require especial care. In fluid 
media the bacillus grows only in vacuo, or in the presence of an 
inert gas. Growth is hindered by C0 2 . The addition of 2 per 
cent, grape sugar makes possible a luxuriant growth in gelatin 
-agar. An excellent medium is furnished by means of boiled pork 



762 POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS 

rendered alkaline and with the addition of grape sugar (1 per 
cent.), peptone (1 per cent.), salt (1 per cent.) and gelatin (2 per 
cent.). In this medium the Bacillus botulinus grows without special 
care with regard to the exclusion of the air, provided melted lard 
is poured over the meat while cooking. 

It is a very remarkable fact that the growth of B. botulinus 
ceases in pork when the latter contains 6 per cent, of common 
salt. Now, pickling is usually done in at least a ten-per-cent. solu- 
tion of brine; therefore, ordinary pickling is sufficient to check 
the development of B. botulinus in meat. Furthermore, the bacillus, 
even in the spore-bearing condition, is sterilized with certainty 
by subjection to a temperature of 80° C. for one-half hour. The 
toxin of botulism is rendered inactive by 
heating to a temperature of 70° C. for a 
period of one hour. Boiling is, therefore, 
a good prophylactic against botulism. The 
toxin of botulism is only slightly resistant 
\ to heat, light and alkalies. Finally, it is. 
an important fact that the disturbances 
/ caused by eating meat appear to be due 
exclusively to the toxin preformed in the 
"T meat, since an increase in quantity or further 
production of the poison in the body of 

Bacillus botulinus from a experimental animals can not be demon- 
sugar-agar culture. Some i i j t> t. j. t i. j. i 

of the bacilli already pos- strated. B. botulinus appears not to b& 
sess spores, x 500 cliam. widely distributed in nature. Brieger and 
Kempner have isolated the pure toxin from 
cultures of B. botulinus. Kabbits are killed within 24 hours by 
0.0005 mg. of this toxin. Furthermore, Kempner, in cooperation 
with Pollak, succeeded in preparing an active therapeutic serum 
against sausage poisoning by treating animals with the toxin of 
botulism. 

Finally, it should be observed that these authors did not suc- 
ceed in isolating a toxin similar to that of botulism from the 
products of decomposition. 

Pathological Symptoms. —The clinical symptoms of sausage 
poisoning are of a very peculiar nature. In the first place, it 
should be noted that the pathological picture is by no means uni- 
form. Variations appear, especially with regard to the incubation 
period and duration of the disease. These variations may be 
explained by the larger or smaller content of botulism toxins in the; 





Fig. 249. 


1 


-?'- ^ 


l\ 


-\ i ' 


/- 


-Is- 


\ 


't\ " 


_^ 


9 , * 


\ 


\ V 




\ s~~ ■ 



BOTULISM 763 

meat. In some patients, the most viruienc symptoms of intoxica- 
tion appear immediately after eating the sausage or meat, while in 
other patients these symptoms appear later. In some cases the 
effects of the disease continue for 1, 2 or 3 days, and then disappear 
entirely, while in other cases convalescence is very slow and is 
extended over a period of several weeks. However, all cases of 
sausage poisoning uniformly exhibit the following symptoms : 
indisposition, bodily pains, pronounced weakness, vomiting, consti- 
pation, or, more rarely, diarrhea. The last-named symptom does 
not appear until the second or third day. Optical disturbances 
are pathognomonic. The eyes are affected in nearly all cases. 
One observes pavalysis of the optic nerve (mydriasis), of the motor 
oculi (ptosis, disturbances in accommodation and strabismus), also 
paralysis of the trochlear and abducens. The lachrymal neiwe* 
is occasionally affected through the trigemini. According to Van 
Ermengem, botulism is characterized as follows : 

1. By an increased or decreased secretion of the saliva and 
mucus of the mouth, pharynx, etc. 

2. By a more or less marked external or internal ophthalmo- 
plegia (blepharoptosis, mydriasis, paralysis of the accommodation; 
center, diplopia, internal strabismus). 

3. Dysphagia, or aphagia, aphony, persistent constipation^ 
retention of urine. 

4. Absence of fever and of sensory and cerebral disturbances. 

5. With these symptoms respiratory and cardiac disturbances: 
are often associated which may cause death more or less suddenly 
with symptoms of bulbar paralysis, 

6. Finally, the characteristic symptoms (mydriasis, ptosis) 
appear, at the earliest, 12 to 24 hours after eating the suspected 
food material. They are often ushered in with temporary gastro- 
intestinal symptoms. These develop gradually and do not dis- 
appear until after several weeks. 

With regard to the pathological anatomy, mention should be 
made of a negative post-mortem finding. Hyperemia of most of 
the viscera is observed. Under certain conditions symptoms of 
gastro-enteritis and fatty degeneration of the liver may be present. 

Mortality. — The death rate in cases of sausage poisoning is 
very high. According to Miiller's estimate, one-third of the patients 
die, and Senkpiehl, in essential agreement with Miiller, found a 
death rate of 40 per cent., or 165 deaths among 412 patients 
(1789-1886). 



764 POST-MOETEM ALTEEATIONS 

Prophylaxis. — Cases of sausage poisoning are preventable by 
hygienic instruction of the public and by suitable laws. The public 
must be warned against eating any meat which is in process of 
decomposition or which is already decomposed. Warning should 
also be issued against eating strongly spiced sausages, for sausage 
which is carelessly prepared from decomposed meat is often 
strongly spiced by butchers in order to conceal its disagreeable 
taste. Moreover, suitable punishment should be provided for such 
dealing, in order to induce sausage makers to use fresh meat in the 
preparation of sausage, and thoroughly to clean the sausage casings 
with the aid of harmless disinfectants wherever possible, and also to 
induce them to cook sausages which are intended for immediate con- 
sumption and to smoke sausages which are intended for long keeping. 
As shown by Serafini, a water content of 30 to 35 per cent, furnishes 
the best security for the preservation of sausages, while the addition 
of saltpeter, boracic or salicylic acids excercises a noticeable effect. 

Finally, the sanitary police should strongly insist that no 
sausages of any kind be prepared from cases of emergency slaugh- 
ter ; at any rate not from animals in which a thorough bleeding has 
not taken place. For experience teaches that the meat of such 
animals is abnormally susceptible to decomposition. 

On the basis of his investigations, Van Ermengem has formu- 
lated the following principles in the prophylaxis of botulism : 

1. Meat conserves which are subjected principally to anaerobic 
conditions, should not be eaten in a raw condition, but only after 
thorough cooking. 

2. Conserves which arouse suspicion on account of their rancid 
odor are to be absolutely excluded from consumption. 

3. With regard to hams, a sufficiently concentrated brine 
appears to prevent them from spoiling. 

2. — Poisoning from Minced Meat. 

Differences Between Minced Meat Poisoning and that 
Which Follows After Eating Decomposed Meat of Other 
Kinds. — Minced meat poisoning is essentially different from poison- 
ing as the result; of eating decomposed meat ; for the former cases 
occur after eating raw meat in which decomposition processes are 
apparently absent. Furthermore, the consumption of such meat in 
a raw condition results in the development of a pronounced toxic 
effect, while in a roasted condition either no effect or only a slight 
illness takes place. 



POISONING FROM MINCED MEAT 765 

Occurrence. — Minced meat poisoning, like trichina epidemics, 
is closely associated with the habit of eating raw meat, which is 
widespread and firmly rooted in certain parts of Germany. Thus 
far, cases of minced meat poisoning have been observed only in the 
States of Saxony. In that region, raw sausages and raw miuced 
meat appear to be real delicacies, the consumption of which has not 
been checked by the numerous epidemics which have occurred. 

The nature of minced meat poisoning has not been sufficiently 
explained. Since these cases occur only under a high external tem- 
perature in spring and summer, it may be concluded that we have 
to deal with decomposition from the effects of bacteria which are 
destroyed by boiling and do not form toxins. Bacteria find a more 
favorable medium in minced meat, the more water has been added 
to the meat by underhand methods. 

Record of Cases. — The following cases of minced meat poison- 
ing have been reported : In Chemnitz in 1879, an outbreak of 
poisoning occurred after mettwurst and raw beef had been eaten, 
during which 241 persons were affected and 2 died. Seven years 
later in the same city, 160 persons became ill after eating minced 
meat. Similar epidemics as a result of eating raw minced meat 
have been observed during the last six years in Dresden (11 cases), 
Gerbstadt (more than 50 cases), and in Gera (30 cases). 

Symptoms. — With regard to the symptoms in the second epi- 
demic of minced meat poisoning in Chemnitz, Haupt, according to 
Schmidt-Mulheim, makes the following statements : The pathologi- 
cal symptoms varied according to the quantity of meat which was 
eaten and the age and constitution of the patients. The symptoms 
appeared four to twenty hours after eating the meat, and, in persons 
who had eaten only a small quantity of the meat, consisted of a 
slight indisposition, congestion of the head and weakness. How- 
ever, in persons who had eaten larger quantities of meat, the 
symptoms included vomiting, dysenterial diarrhea, headache, dizzi- 
ness and extreme depression. In children, the cases exhibited 
cholera-like symptoms, high fever, violent headache, delirium and 
alarming weakness. A few cases appeared to be critical after a 
number of days. All of the patients, however, recovered after a- 
shorter or longer period of illness. In the case of a child under one 
year of age, it could not be determined whether death was a result 
of eating the meat or not. 



766 POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS 

Prophylaxis. — For preventing cases of minced meat poisoning, 
Sckmidt-Miilkeim recommended that the long preservation of raw 
meat during the warm days of summer be prohibited by police 
regulations. Such a regulation was subsequently passed in Schmal- 
kalden. 

Appendix. 
(a) Poisoning 1 from Decomposing- Fish and Crustacea. 

In the decomposition of fish and Crustacea, toxins appear to be 
formed which greatly exceed in toxicity those formed from the meat 
of warm blooded animals. According to Bocklisch, the toxic 
properties of fish meat are greatest in the first stage of decomposi- 
tion.* 

For this reason, careful attention should be given by the market 
police to traffic with decomposing fish and Crustacea. 

Recognition oe Decomposition in Fish. — In addition to the 
above mentioned character of decomposition (page 754), Gerlach 
mentions other special indications of decomposition in fish. He 
says, "dead fish are to be considered as unfit for food when the 
eyes have lost their sheen, or the cornea is somewhat cloudy, the 
red gills pale and the meat soft so as to pit on pressure with the 
finger, or, finally, when the scales are easily loosened." 

In the later stages of decomposition in fish, the entrails are 
partly forced out of the body cavity as a result of the decomposition 
gases. Baranski recommends laying fish in water in testing their 
condition. Dead fish which sink are good and undecomposed, 
while putrefying fish float upon the water. 

With regard to the cadaverous decomposition of Crustacea, the 
Uerlin police president called attention in a public circular to the 
iact that in boiled crawfish, shrimps and other Crustacea, injurious 
substances may develop after long standing, even before the 
appearance of the odor of decomposition and when the animals 
Jiave been boiled after being allowed to die. In such crawfish, the 
telson is usually not curved under the abdomen.f 

*From the similar pathological symptoms in man, Van Ermengem concludes 
that the most frequent form of ichthystn is almost identical with sausage poison- 
ing and therefore has the same etiology as the latter. 

f Landgericht I. in Berlin decided with regard to dead crawfish that such 
material must be considered as highly unfit for human food and must, there- 



POISONING FROM CLAMS 



767 



(b) Poisoning from Clams. 

The outbreaks of clam poisoning which were observed in 
"Wilhelmshaven in 1885 and 1887 and which are described by 
Schmidtmann, have recently directed attention to this kind of 

fore, be excluded froni the market. This decision was based chiefly on the 
statement of an expert meat inspector that the meat of crawfish rapidly passes 



Fig. 250. 



Fig. 251. 




Male crawfish, a, copulatory organs ; 
i, swiinmerets. 



Female crawfish, a, opening of the 
genital organs ; b, swimmerets. 



into decomposition. The sale of dead lobsters and fish, as is well known, is not 
to be prohibited so long as it shows no decomposition. In addition to the deter- 
mination of cadaverous alterations in crawfish, the recognition of the sex is of 
interest, since in certain parts of the country closed seasons are prescribed for 
female crawfish. The male is slenderer than the female and possesses only three 
swimmerets, while the female has four (Figs. 250, b, and 251, b). Furthermore, 
in the male the copulating organs (Fig. 250, a) are found in front of the first pair 
of swimmerets, and in the female the opening of the sexual organs at the base of 
the second pair of swimmerets (Fig. 251, a) are diagnostic characters. 



768 POST-MORTEM ALTERATIONS 

intoxication, which was observed by Vancower in 1800. The etiol- 
ogy of mytilism, however, is not fully explained, in spite of the 
numerous investigations which were made in the cases which 
occurred in Wilhelmshaven. 

Nature of the Poisoning. — Brieger considers the toxic body to be 
a leucomain (mytilotoxin), which he succeeded in isolating from the 
clams, especially from the liver. The origin of this body was not 
determined. It is a matter of fact, however, that certain " poison 
areas" are found in the water along the coast, in which clams are 
uniformly poisonous. 

Recognition of Poisonous Clams. — According to Schmidtmann 
and Virchow, poisonous clams are less pigmented (lighter with 
radiate streaks), while non-poisonous specimens are uniformly 
darkly pigmented. Furthermore, the shells are less firm, more 
friable and broader than in non-poisonous clams. The liver is 
larger, softer and rich in fat and pigment. 

Prophylaxis. — Springfield recommends that the public be 
warned against buying dead clams (those which do not close the 
shell when taken out of the water). Furthermore, the public 
should be warned against eating the liver and the broth. The 
former is the principal location of the toxin, which is extracted by 
water. Finally, it is recommended that the clams be boiled in a 
soda solution, since the toxin is thereby destroyed with certainty. 
The excess of alkali after boiling may be easily removed by the 
addition of a few drops of hydrochloric acid. 

Relationship Betiueen Mytilism and Botulism. — Mytilism, even in 
a paralytic form, has, according to van Ermengem, nothing in com- 
mon with botulism. For, in mytilism the pathological symptoms 
appear within one-fourth to one-half hour after eating, and death 
within a few hours at the outside. Moreover, the disease quickly 
runs an acute course and is not ushered in with long-continued 
ocular disturbances as in botulism. Finally, mytilotoxin resists 
high temperatures, while the toxin of botulism does not. Mytilism 
must, therefore, be considered as an intoxication sui generis. 

(c) Poisoning from Oysters. 

As shown by experience, the eating of oysters may lead to 
slight or serious cases of illness. Slight cases consist of urticaria 
and albuminuria ; more serious cases in violent gastro-enteritis. 
Cases have been observed in which cholera-like symptoms devel- 
oped after eating a single oyster. 



POISONING FROM OYSTEKS 769 

Etiology. — The cause of oyster poisoning, like that of clam 
poisoning, is still doubtful. Formerly, it was assumed that color- 
ing oysters with verdigris in order to give them the appearance of 
the so-called groenbarden * was the cause of the poisoning. 

This assumption, however, can not be brought into harmony 
with the phenomena of ordinary oyster poisoning. According to 
Bardet, all oysters are diseased during the summer. Bardet, how- 
ever, was unable to determine the nature of this disease. He 
merely found that diseased oysters possess a characteristic milky 
appearance and that the liver is enormously enlarged, gray and 
soft. 

Prophylaxis. — In view of the fact that oysters are poisonous 
only in the summer months, their sale has long been prohibited 
during the months from May to August. This prohibition is per- 
fectly justifiable. In very warm early autumns, or Indian summers, 
cases of poisoning may occur in September and October. More- 
over, the public should be warned against eating dead or decom- 
posed oysters. 

When removed from the water, good oysters close the shell, 
react to touch with movements, are of medium size and bluish color 
and exhibit a clear, pure, fluid inside the shell. In the case of dead 
oysters, the shells remain open, while decomposed oysters are dis- 
colored, very soft, do not smell fresh and also exhibit a blackish 
ring on the inner side of the shell. — Springfield. 



* The so-called groenbarden, or Marennes oysters, acquire their natural green 
color from the sea water in which they are placed as soon as captured, and in 
which they are kept for months, during which time they are fed on a species of 
seaweed, Navicula ostrearia. The seaweed contains the coloring matter called 
by Ray Lankaster, marennin, which is deposited in the cuticular cells of the 
gills and which is bluish of itself, but is changed to green by the normal brown- 
ish or yellowish color of the gills. 

Oysters which contain copper are not dark-green, but grass-green, and 
exhibit a verdigris-like, slimy secretion of the folds of the mantel. After the 
addition of vinegar, a fork becomes encrusted with copper when stuck into the 
oysters, and when ammonia is added, the oysters become dark-blue.— Spring- 
field. 



XV. 



ADDITION OF FLOUR TO SAUSAGE-COLORING AND 
INFLATION OF MEAT. 



1. — Addition of Flour to Sausages. 

General. — At stock shows and also on other occasions, butchers 
never fail to insist upon the fact that the aim of hog raising runs 
directly counter to the interests of meat dealers, for in all cases an 
attempt is made to produce as early and as large a deposition of fat 
as possible. Butchers claim that such hogs are not suitable for 
manufacturing into sausage, since they do not render possible the 
preparation of a sausage with good keeping qualities and do not 
furnish a good " combining" mass for so-called kochwurst or bruh- 
wurst. 

By the term "combining power of meat "is understood the 
property of absorbing water. The combining power is due to the 
swelling capacity of muscle albumen (Hofmann). In highly fattened 
animals which mature late, this swelling capacity is greater than in 
animals fattened on large rations of manufacturers' byproducts and 
which have reached an early maturity. In the last named animals 
the combining power of the meat, especially in summer, is said to 
be slight. Dry, firm fibers have the power of absorbing the most 
water ; moist and flabby fibers, the least. According to Trillich, 
and his statement is confirmed by others, it is possible for 100 
parts of sausage to absorb as much as 70 parts by weight of 
water. 

It is a highly remarkable fact that in beef the absorptive power 
for water may be artificially increased by working it up in a fresh 
warm condition and either pounding it vigorously or deviling it. 
Pork with a low combining power may have this property increased 
by salting, frequent turning, or by the addition of beef and veal. 
The combining power of pork may be also increased by adding eggs 
or dry albumen (100 to 200 grams allowed to swell in one liter of 
water per half centner of sausage material). 

770 



GENERAL • 771 

The custom of mixing flour with the meat in the preparation of 
kochwurst or bruhwurst, in order to give the material the necessary 
combining power, is attributed to the defective combining power of 
meat. There are no reliable data concerning the time when, or the 
place where, this custom originated. Berlin and Leipsic butchers 
testified in court during the 80' s of the previous century that the 
custom of adding material to the sausages above named had been 
established for "about ten years," and that this method of manu- 
facturing sausage had been introduced from southern Germany. 
The butchers in southern Germany, on the other hand, reported 
that in " southern Germany since ten or fifteen years " it had been 
the custom to add flour to sausage pulp. However that may be, it 
is a matter of fact that at the present time the addition of flour to 
sausages intended for immediate consumption has become a wide- 
spread custom in Germany. 

The following facts were obtained by means of a circular letter 
addressed to the German Meat Dealers' Union : 

In the province of Hanover, it has been customary since 
"grandfather's" time to prepare sausage mixed with milling 
products. In Voigtlandt and Erzgebirge, it is customary to add 
about 2 per cent, of starch flour to all bruhwurst. In Bheinland 
and Westphalia, the addition of potato flour to a number of kinds 
of sausage is generally practiced, although there are certain butch- 
ers who use only animal products. The meat dealers in Koln assert 
that the addition of flour is absolutely unnecessary in the case of 
sausages intended for long keeping (cervelatwurst, blockwurst, etc.) ; 
that the addition of 2 or 3 per cent, is sufficient for different kinds 
of kochwurst, such as fleischwurst, leberwurst, mettwurst, frank- 
furters, etc., while for ordinary leberwurst or bruhwurst, the addi- 
tion of 5 to 8 per cent, of flour is considered customary. In the 
Kingdom of Wiirtemburg, according to the statements of the 
Butchers' Union, the preparation of fresh sausages, genuine brat- 
wurst, from pounded young beef or veal, with the addition of milk, 
eggs and 2 to 3 per cent, of wheat flour, has been customary from 
time immemorial and has never been condemned by the authorities. 
In the Province of Brandenburg, the addition of 2 to 4 per cent, of 
starch material to rostwurst is considered necessary. It was 
reported from Magdeburg that it was not customary to add any 
considerable quantity of flour to sausage, and finally, from Silesia 
and East Prussia it was reported that the addition of flour to sau- 
sage was unknown or not practiced. 

The materials for the technical basis of the draft of the food 



772 ADDITION OP FLOUR TO SAUSAGES 

law contain the statement that many butchers have found that even: 
small quantities of starch flour or ordinary flour, when cooked with 
water, may absorb a large quantity (50 times its volume) of water 
and that thereby a thick, firm paste is formed. Butchers are said 
to have taken advantage of this property by adding such paste to 
the sausage. Against the oft-repeated assertion that the addition 
of flour belongs to the sausage, it must be objected that, especially 
in private houses, good sausages are frequently made without any 
addition of paste. 

It was then an important duty of chemical experts — in addition 
to the demonstration of coloring matters artificially added to meat 
and the only duty which fell to the chemists with respect to the 
supervision of the meat traffic — to demonstrate flour in sausages, 
for this demonstration is very simple. The simplicity of the 
demonstration in connection with the above mentioned statements 
of the materials for the basis of the food law brought it about that 
after the passage of the food law a very large number of prosecu- 
tions were made for adding flour to sausages, and these cases, 
through the testimony of witnesses and the accurate investigations 
of experts, brought to light some surprising facts concerning the 
operation and purpose of the manipulation in question. The final 
result could not be brought into harmony with the statement in the 
materials for the basis of the food law, and the latter, therefore, can 
no longer be considered as an accurate foundation for a legal judg- 
ment of the addition of flour to sausages. 

For the better understanding of the question at issue, it is 
necessary to devote a little time to the customary method of prepar- 
ing meat for sausages, especially with regard to the manufacture of 
kochwurst or briihwurst intended for immediate consumption. With 
regard to the two last named kinds of sausage, very important 
criteria are contained in an opinion of Prof. Hofmann in Leipsic, 
which was requested by the Landgericht in Liibeck. 

Different Kinds of Sausages. — Distinction is made according 
to the material which constitutes the chief element of the sausage 
between visceral sausages (lungwurst, leberwurst, hirnleberwurst), 
siilzwurst, which contain a considerable amount of skin from the 
head and feet (schwartenmagen, presssack, head cheese, " calf's 
feet," etc.), blood sausages and lastly meat sausages. Meat sausages 
are again divided into those which are intended for long keeping 
(cervelatwurst, schlackwurst and mettwurst) and bratwurst, koch- 
wurst and briihwurst. The latter are known in different parts of 



PREPARATION OP KOCHWURST AND BRUHWURST 773 

Germany under the names saitenwurst, knoblauchwurst, wiener- 
wurst, bierwurst, knackwurst and jauerschewurst. 

Preparation of Kochwurst and Bruhwurst. — In contrast with 
the sausages intended for long keeping, in making which the chief 
aim is to secure the best possible keeping quality, the method of 
preparing kochwurst and bruhwurst is such that an immediate con- 
sumption is required, not only on account of the slight keeping 
quality of the sausage, but also in the interest of the manufacturer 
and dealer. The water content of the meat mass which is used in 
preparing these sausages is artificially increased. Kochwurst 
becomes more unsightly from day to day on account of the evapora- 
tion of water, which, in consequence of the delicate casing, takes 
place much more rapidly in kochwurst than in other sausages. For 
this reason it is to the interest of dealers, as already mentioned, 
that the sausage should be consumed as soon as possible. The 
sausages are exposed for a short time to hot smoke and immediately 
before being eaten are either cooked or, more frequently, placed in 
water at a temperature of 70° C. for about 20 minutes. 

The addition of water to the minced meat in the preparation 
of kochwurst is absolutely necessary for two reasons : 

In the first place, without an addition of water to the minced 
meat it is impossible for the sausage maker to prepare a meat mass 
of the proper consistency for injecting into the thin- walled casings 
which are used and which must be used in the manufacture of 
bruhwurst. Thin-walled casings must be used, since in the case of 
bruhwurst the casing is not removed, as in the other sausages, but is 
eaten along with the sausage by the great majority of consumers; 

In the second place, the high water content of kochwurst or 
bruhwurst is an essential character required by the consumers. 
The public desires a "juicy" bierwurst with a homogeneous, coherent 
and non-friable cut surface. The juicy character and the homogen- 
eous structure of the sausage, however, can not be secured without 
the addition of water. The natural water of the meat is not suffi- 
cient to render possible the preparation of a juicy kochwurst. For 
purposes of comparison, Hof mann had bruhwurst prepared without 
the addition of water. Although the fresh meat paste possessed a 
water content of 76.5 per cent., corresponding to that of fresh meat, 
the water content of the meat paste in the sausage was lowered to 
51 per cent, as a result of smoking. The sausages, the dry matter 
of which had increased 49 per cent., were hard, tough and dry. It 
was necessary to masticate the firm mass a long time before it 



774 ADDITION OF FLOUR TO SAUSAGES 

could be swallowed. Hofmann says that the sausages were 
"simply of a quality such that they could not be sold as juicy, soft 
briihwurst." The addition of water is, therefore, made, not to 
increase the weight of the sausages, but to lend them quite specific 
characters which are demanded in briihwurst. 

From the experiment of Hofmann it is apparent that the 
demand of consumers for a juicy briihwurst is not unreasonable, if 
we consider merely the palatability of the material. This, how- 
ever, is the essential feature in the kind of sausage in question. 
Hofmann rightly says : " On account of the necessary addition of 
water to briihwurst, this sausage is no longer a pure meat sausage. 
Briihwurst and kochwurst, as usually prepared, do not possess the 
nutritive value of pure meat." Hofmann also demonstrated that 
the weight of sausages found on the market varied considerably 
(from 34.1 to 40.1 grams, or about 17.6 per cent.). This fact indi- 
cated very clearly the difference in value between sausages intended 
for long keeping and kochwurst. The former are bought by weight. 
In the case of briihwurst the public does not ask concerning the 
weight. As Trillion says, it is literally true that, in the case of 
briihwurst, we eat water with a fork ; but in these sausages we do 
not pay for the nutritive value, but for the taste. 

Water Content of Bruhwurst. — The quantity of water which 
is added in the preparation of the meat mass varies. More water is 
added to good dry meat than to that of a watery character, since 
the latter possesses smaller powers of imbibition. Sausage makers 
determine the required amount of water for different qualities of 
meat, not according to the determined weights, but according to the 
feeling. "Water is added to the meat mass until it acquires the 
proper consistency according to the view of the sausage maker. 
According to Hofmann, the amount of water added amounts to 24 
per cent. However, the amount of water added is illusory, since 
"the sausages lose water during smoking and drying, and are, there- 
fore, sold with a considerably lower water content. Hofmann 
found that the water content of sausages immediately after smoking 
was only 60.6 to 64.8 per cent. The sausage mass had, therefore, 
lost during the process of smoking not only the quantity which was 
added artificially, but also 10 to 15 per cent, of the natural water of 
the meat. 

Is Starch Flour Absolutely Required in the Preparation of 
-Bruhwurst? — This question must be answered in the negative; for 



PREPARATION OF KOCHWURST AND BRTJHWURST 775 

there are butchers who prepare briihwurst without the addition of 
flour. Furthermore, in legal processes, on account of the addition 
of flour in Regensburg, Munich and Coblenz, it was considered as 
demonstrated that the addition of flour was not customary and also 
that the public expected to obtain pure meat sausages when buying 
briihwurst. The addition of flour to meat masses intended for 
briihwurst can, therefore, not be considered as an absolute neces- 
sity, since good meat possesses a sufficient combining power to 
absorb the required quantity of water and since the trade has 
recourse to other means than the use of flour for increasing the 
combining power of meat (page 770). 

The preparation of briihwurst without the addition of flour 
must, however, be characterized as exceptional in Germany. As a 
rule, flour is added, especially patato flour, to which also the name 
of "strength flour" is given for reasons which are not apparent. 
The resolution of a " Congress of Sausage Makers," at which a 
majority of the delegates decided that the addition of 2 per cent, of 
flour to certain sausages was necessary, furnishes proof of the 
extent of the custom of using flour in the manufacture of briih- 
wurst. The Butchers' Union in Bremen declared in the form of a 
resolution that the use of flour for improving the quality of certain 
kinds of sausage had been customary for years ; moreover, that this 
addition is not considered as a fraudulent practice by the dealers is 
apparent from the fact that, as stated by Hofmann, briihwurst was 
prepared with the addition of flour before the eyes of the public at 
a cooking exhibition in Leipsic. 

Does the Addition of Starch Flour Render Possible an 
Unusually High Water Content, or Does it Prevent the Loss 
of Water in Smoking and Drying? — It must be considered as a 
happy thought on the part of the Landgericht at Lubeck that it 
had careful experiments instituted in the form of a sausage test for 
obtaining light on these points. Sausages were prepared without 
potato flour, with 0.8 per cent., and also with 2 per cent, potato 
flour. (Sample I. without flour, but with the usual addition of 
water ; Sample II. with 0.8 per cent, potato flour and with the 
usual 8 per cent, of water; Sample III. with 2 per cent, of flour and 
as great as possible an addition of water ; Sample IV. without flour, 
but with the same amount of water added as in Sample III.). The 
experts who were requested to test the sausages, Pharmacist 
Schorer and Prof. Kiistermann, summarized the results of the test 
as follows : 



776 ADDITION OF FLOUR TO SAUSAGES 

1. For the regular preparation of bierwurst, 18 parts of water 
must be added to every 100 parts of meat in order to produce a 
•workable raw mass. 

2. In smoking such sausages, which, as a rule, occupies one- 
half hour and is carried out in a sort of fire-place, or over a free fire, 
the mass loses about 11 parts of water ; so that a bierwurst is 
obtained with 7 parts of water to 100 parts of meat. 

3. The addition of 0.8 per cent, potato flour to the meat mass 
is without any decided influence upon the water content of the sau- 
sauge. The sausage is not thereby altered either in external 
appearance or in taste after cooking ; that is, in the case of meat 
with a good combining power. 

4. With the addition of 2 parts of potato flour, as much as 70 
parts of water may be mixed with 100 parts of meat for obtaining a 
raw mass for the preparation of bierwurst. 

5. The same quantity of water, however, 70 parts to 100 parts 
of meat, may be added also without the use of potato flour.* 

6. In smoking, Sample III. (with 2 per cent, flour) and Sample 
IV. (without flour) lost about the same amount of water immediately 
after smoking, or 32 and 35 parts respectively. After hanging 24 
hours in the air, the loss increased to 42 and 44 parts of water, so 
that the bierwurst, when ready for consumption, consisted of 100 
parts of meat with 28 or 26 parts of water. 

7. The addition of potato flour, at least in quantities up to 2 
per cent., does not, therefore, make possible the utilization of a 
larger quantity of water in the sausage mass than could be accom- 
plished with the meat mass alone without the addition of potato 
flour. 

In any event, this quantity of water must be estimated as con- 
siderably less than 70 per cent, of the raw mass, or less than 26 per 
cent, of the 100 parts of meat in the smoked sausage when ready for 
consumption, if the bierwurst is to be as saleable as the ordinary 
market form of this sausage. 

8. From a comparison of the loss of water from Sample I. 
(without flour) and Sample II. (with 0.8 per cent, flour) or from 
Sample III. (with 2 per cent, flour) and Sample IV. (without flour), 
it appears " that the amount of water lost in smoking depends upon 



* Trillich also demonstrated this fact. At the Sixth Session of the Free 
Union of Bavarian Representatives of Applied Chemistry, he characterized the 
influence of the addition of starch flour upon the water content as illusory, since 
io is possible to combine an equally large quantity of water in a sausage mass 
which contains no starch flour. 



DEMONSTRATION OF STARCH FLOUR 777 

the amount of water added to the raw sausage mass and that 
this is not influenced by the addition of potato flour, at least when 
used in quantities up to 2 per cent." 

These experiments show that the addition of a small quantity 
(up to 2 per cent.) of starch flour does not injure the quality of the 
sausage in the sense of making it more watery than would be pos- 
sible without this addition. The essential point in the views 
expressed in the materials for the technical basis of the food law 
concerning the effect of the addition of flour is, therefore, robbed of 
its force. Moreover, on the occasion of the legal proceeding in 
Xmbeck, Schorer called attention to the fact that it was a gross 
error to assume, as was done in the materials for the basis of the 
food law, that 1 part of starch flour in 50 parts of water furnishes 
«, thick, firm paste. The experiments instituted by him showed 
that 1 part of starch flour boiled in 50 parts of water gives a 
fluid substance which could readily be poured in drops. A firm 
paste could be obtained only by cooking 1 part of flour with not 
more than 10 parts of water. In general, it was shown that potato 
flour does not absorb water except when boiled ; that the materials 
are added to the sausage in a cold form and not, at least not as a 
rule, in the form of a paste, as assumed in the materials for the 
oasis of the food law. Furthermore, the sausages in question are 
usually not boiled, but, as stated by Bischoff, steamed at a tempera- 
ture of 70° C. 

Demonstration of Starch Flour. — This demonstration may 
be conveniently made, chemically, by the use of Lugol's solution, 
with which the cut surfaces of the sausage to be tested is touched. 
If starch flour is present, the characteristic blue color is produced 
in a diffuse distribution over the whole cut surface. 

Furthermore, the addition of flour may be demonstrated by 
the microscope. Briiller states that for accuracy he prefers a 
microscopic demonstration. He argues that the iodine reaction 
proves nothing with regard to the presence of starch flour, since 
pepper is also normally present in sausage and this may give a fine 
iodine reaction, even in great dilution, with 5,000 times its quantity 
of water.* ■ It was further stated by Briiller " that under the micro- 
scope the starch of pepper could be readly distinguished from that 
of potatoes, since the starch granules of pepper are considerably 

* According to Lehmann, the amylum of the seasoning is not sufficient to 
produce a microscopic, diffuse, blue coloration on the cut surface of the sausage 
after treatment with iodine. 



778 ADDITION OF FLOUR TO SAUSAGES 

smaller and never show the concentric striation with the excentric 
nucleus of potato flour. As Briiller rightly observes, amyluni 
granules are for the most part demonstrable in the unaltered condi- 
tion, since, as a rule, flour and not paste is added to the sausage 
mass, and since amylnm granules, as shown by Schorer, undergo no 
alteration during smoking at a high temperature. 

Histology of Potato Starch. — The starch granules of pota- 
toes are on an average 45 to 75 ju long, 45 to 65 /^ wide, round 
or elliptical (oyster-shaped). The excentric nucleus lies almost 
always in the narrower portion. The striae are not uniform, but 
are mostly fine and sharp (draft of the Codex Alimentarius Austria- 
cus). 

Quantitative Demonstration of Starch. — In order to deter- 
mine the quantity of starch flour which has been added to meat 
products, the so-called inversion method has heretofore been 
nsed successfully. By this method the amyloid substances are 
changed, by the action of dilute acids under high temperature and 
pressure, into sugar, and the latter is determined. 

A second method of procedure was described by Mayrhofer. 
According to this method the material to be examined is dissolved 
by the application of heat on a water bath in about 8 per cent, 
alcoholic potash lye without the addition of sand for the purpose 
of a better distribution. In the case of pure sausages, scarcely any 
residue is left except cellulose, since the casing is also dissolved. 
After the material is dissolved, it is diluted in warm alcohol in 
order to prevent gelatination. Any insoluble residue which may 
be present is placed upon a paper or asbestos filter and washed 
with alcohol until the alkaline reaction disappears. It is then 
treated with an aqueous solution of potash lye and thereby the 
starch is brought up to a definite volume. If, now, the alkaline 
solution is treated with alcohol, the starch is precipitated in flakes 
and settles rapidly to the bottom. After filtration upon filters of 
known weight and washing with alcohol and, finally, with ether, the 
quantity of starch may be easily determined. 

In order to avoid a determination of the ash, it is desirable ta 
produce the precipitation, not with alkalies, but with a solution 
slightly acidified with acetic acid, since the acetate of the carbonate 
of potash which is contained in abundance in the starch is easily 
soluble in alcohol. In this manner we obtain starch free from ash. 
The results show the quantity of pure starch, not the original quan- 



HYGIENIC AND CULINARY JUDGMENT. 779 

tity of flour added. The method is, therefore, not strictly accurate, 
but it is quite as accurate as the previous method of inversion. 
Since the distribution of starch in the sausage is not uniform, it is 
desirable to take not merely a few grams for samples, but pieces 
weighing from 60 to 80 grams. 

Experiments with sausages artificially diluted with starch flour 
have shown that the starch which was originally used can be dem- 
onstrated by the method of Mayrhofer, either in its entirety or at 
least within a few milligrams. 

Hygienio and Culinary Judgment op the Addition of Flour. 
— Hofmann rendered an opinion, in harmony with Schmidt-Mul- 
heim and Schorer, that the addition of flour does not promote the 
decomposition of sausages ; that sausage paste decomposes with 
equal rapidity whether with or without the addition of flour, and 
that, therefore, the assumption of a harmful effect from the addition 
of flour is unjustifiable, since the starch flour belongs to a class of 
bodies which decompose with difficulty.* Finally, Hofmann calls 
attention to the fact that a slight addition of starch flour improves 
the quality of sausages. The juice of the sausage is thereby ren- 
dered thicker and therefore remains longer on the tongue. More- 
over, it is asserted that the addition of flour renders possible the 
use of larger quantities of spice in the sausages, since it operates at 
the same time as a diluting and enveloping medium. Hofmann 
claims that flour is therefore added even by very reliable dealers, 
since sausages containing flour are preferred by the public. As a 
result of the addition of flour in limited quantities, Schmidt-Miil- 
heim observed an improvement in the quality of sausage, due to the 
fact that the starch flour helps to combine the sausage mass and 
prevents its escape from the casing. 

Legal Judgment of the Addition of Flour to Bruhwurst. 
— No hygienic scruples can be held against the addition of flour to 
bruhwurst. There is, however, a further question, whether a 
material injury is not caused to the consumer through the addition 
of flour, and whether sausages containing flour must not be consid- 
ered adulterated. 

Under the head of adulterated food materials (page 102), we 



* In the case of blood and liver sausages which are diluted with flour to the 
extent of 10 per cent, and which are not at all or only partially smoked and have 
been preserved for a long tune, a noticeable souring may take place before true 
meat decomposition sets in (Bischoff). 



780 ADDITION OF FLOUB TO SAUSAGES 

understand those which do not possess the properties which are 
expected in actual trade. The conditions of adulteration are not 
fulfilled if the addition of flour is customary in the locality in ques- 
tion — and that is the case in the greater part ®f Germany — and if 
the quantity of flour added does not exceed 1 to 2 per cent., which 
is the usual quantity in trade. 

On the other hand, the addition of flour must be considered as 
an adulteration in localities where it is not customary ; * or if it 
greatly exceeds the above named limits so that it amounts to an 
actual and substantial depreciation of value, or to a considerable 
replacement of meat with flour. Greater quantities than 1 to 2 per 
cent, are added to the sausage mass only with fraudulent intent, 
since, according to the statements of reliable dealers, 1 to 2 per cent, 
is sufficient in order to lend the sausages an appetizing taste. 

It must be characterized as an adulteration when flour is added 
io sausages other than brtihwurst, particularly to sausages which 
are intended for long keeping, since in the latter the addition of 
iflour is neither customary nor necessary .f Similarly, the addition 
of flour to minced meat is undoubtedly a gross adulteration.:): 

The Reichgericht, in a judgment rendered October 4, 1883, 
declared that it is a case of adulteration when a paste consisting of 
potato flour and water is added to sausages, contrary to the custom 
which prevails at the locality where the sausage is prepared and 
according to which pure meat sausages are understood by the terms 
used. 

Furthermore, in the case of the Regensburg butchers (Criminal 
Senate I, Judgment of September 23, 1883), the Reichgericht ren- 
dered a similar decision. These butchers had added 1 to 5 per 
cent, of flour to presssack, speckwurst, blutpresssack, weisswurst 
and Parisian sausages. It was held to be a settled fact that in 



* In such localities, dealers may protect themselves against legal procedure 
hy the use of placards such as are employed in "Wiesbaden (page 781). 

f Bischoff calls attention to the fact that in the case of sausages which are 
hoiled before smoking a very different judgment should be rendered than in the 
case of briihwurst, in which smoking is done first. In material which is first 
cooked, as, for example, liver sausage, the starch is changed to a paste by the 
process of boiling. This paste yields up only a part of its water during smoking, 
and in such products, subsequently sold according to weight, an abnormally 
large water content is present as a result of the addition of flour. 

% The addition of " albumina " is also an undoubted adulteration. Albumina 
consists of tragacanth and albumen and when added to the extent of 3 per cent, 
renders possible the preparation of a sausage paste which consists of 70 pounds 
of meat to 100 pounds of water. 



LEGAL JUDGMENT 781 

Regensburg the addition of flour was not a common custom and that 
the public did not know or expect that it was purchasing anything 
else than material prepared purely from parts of the animal body 
with the addition of spice. 

Likewise, the Reichgericht (I, Judgment of January 7, 1887) 
decided that in Munich the addition of 4 to 5 per cent, of starch 
flour to sausages was an adulteration, since such an addition in the- 
place in question was neither a common custom nor expected by the 
public. It was held also- that the trade practice could not be con- 
sidered as deciding the question in itself, merely according to the 
wish and practice of the producers, but that the reasonable expecta- 
tion of the public must also be considered. 

On the other hand, the addition of a small quantity of wheat 
bread to rostbratwurst (10 to 12 pfennig worth to 5 kg. of meat) was 
not considered as an adulteration if in the region in question suck 
an addition was " by no means an unknown or unexpected admix- 
ture," and if, on the contrary, " according to the view of the public," 
wheat bread is a necessary constituent of a palatable bratwursfc 
(Decision of Criminal Senate III, December 21, 1882). 

Finally, on December 3, 1894, the Reichgericht decided that 
the addition of flour to cervelatwurst, in however small quantity, 
must be considered as an adulteration. 

The Royal Prussian Landgericht at Coblenz declared that in 
Coblenz, according to the practice of the reliable tradespeople, 
nothing but meat (beef or pork), except the necessary seasoning, 
is to be used in the ordinary preparation of meat sausage and that 
other additions (liver, lungs, sardines, etc.) are to be indicated in 
the name of sausage. It was held that flour could not be considered 
a normal constituent of meat sausage. Nevertheless, the defendants, 
who had used flour to the extent of 3.3 per cent., were discharged 
for the reason that they had added the flour merely as a combining 
material without knowing that it was not allowable, and without the 
intention of deceiving. 

The Landgericht in Frankfurt decided that the addition of two 
per cent, of flour as combining material was permissible. 

In Wiesbaden and Giessen, any addition of flour to sausage is 
considered as punishable. For this reason it has become the estab- 
lished custom of sausage dealers to display placards in their 
salesrooms with the inscription "sausage with combining material." 
The dealers thus escape liability of punishment by this declaration. 
Likewise, according to a decree of the council in Dresden, April 8, 
1899, any addition of flour to sausages is considered punishable. 



782 ADDITION OF FLOUR TO SAUSAGES 

On the other hand, the utilization of wheat bread in the preparation 
of so-called semmelleberwurst is not condemned on account of 
being a local custom. Also in the Grand Duchy of Baden, no 
addition of flour is permitted (Ministerial Decree of March 17, 
1897). 

Note. 

Other Adulterations with Inferior Material. 

With regard to other adulterations in meat traffic and in the 
manufacture of sausages, a proper decision can easily be reached 
in accordance with the previous discussion and after consideration 
of the meaning of the term adulteration. In all cases the essential 
points which determine the fact of deception are the determination 
of the prevailing custom of preparation among reliable dealers and 
the reasonable expectation of the consumers in buying the products 
and also the price. 

According to these points of view, the addition of a small quan- 
tity of wheat bread to rostbratwurst was not considered as an adul- 
teration in the decision of the Eeichgericht, December 21, 1882. 
Similarly the utilization of wheat bread in preparing fresh blood 
and liver sausages in Berlin was not considered an adulteration 
since this method of preparation was quite common and well 
known (BischofT). On the other hand, the utilization of testicles, 
uteri, with or without the fetus, beef head, etc., in the preparation 
of sausages, undoubtedly constitutes an adulteration. 

Special attention may be directed merely to an adulteration, 
the detection of which is in other respects the function of a chemist 
— namely, to the adulteration of lard with cottonseed oil. This oil 
is added in large quantities to American lard. According to Sendt- 
ner, for example, among 110 samples of American lard examined in 
Munich, not less than 72 were adulterated with cottonseed oil, 
while, according to Stein, 14 out of 78 samples inspected in Copen- 
hagen were likewise adulterated. The addition of this vegetable oil 
amounted to 50 per cent, or more, so that the mixture should not 
properly have borne the name lard. So long as the American fat 
mixture is sold under proper declaration, no objection can be made 
to it. Volenti non Jit injuria. On the other hand, the practice of 
mixing domestic lard with the American material and selling this 
mixture under the name and for the price of the former should be 
checked. 



OTHER ADULTERATIONS 783 

The demonstration of cottonseed oil in lard may be made by- 
determining the iodin number (page 219). According to Neufeld, 
the iodin number of lard is 46 to 61. Cottonseed oil raises the 
iodin number, while it is lowered by the addition of beef tallow. 

Governmental Regulations Against the Adulteration or Lard. 

According to the Imperial law concerning traffic in butter, 
cheese, lard and other substances, June 15, 1897, all lard-like prepar- 
ations in which the fat content does not consist exclusively of pork 
fat, must be declared as " artificial food fat." The following state- 
ment concerning the meaning of this term is contained in Section 1: 

" Artificial food fats in the sense of the law include prepara- 
tions resembling lard in which the fat content does not consist 
exclusively of pork fat. Exception is made in favor of unadulterated 
fats of certain animal and vegetable species which are exhibited 
under names which indicate their origin." 

Adulteration of Caviar. — A work of Niebel contains some very 
interesting statements concerning adulterations of caviar. In Ger- 
many, according to Niebel, fluid or granular caviar is almost the 
only kind found on the market. More rarely pressed or so-called 
servietten-caviar is observed. The best caviar is the Russian ; the 
American is next best ; the third best is the Elbe caviar.* The 
Russian caviar is coarsely granular and free from membranes and 
mucous admixtures. In judging caviar, attention should be given 
to the color, consistency, size of the eggs and the odor and taste, as 
well as the purity. According to Niebel, caviar is to be considered 
spoiled when it contains foreign admixtures or when it is rancid or 
possesses a mouldy or bile-like, bitter taste. On the other hand, it 
is to be considered as adulterated when foreign materials, like 
bouillon, white beer, oil or sago are added. Sour caviar is of 
inferior quality. The border line between inferior and rancid caviar, 
according to Niebel, is at the point of 4.5 per cent, of free acid con- 
tent. The content of common salt in samples of caviar which were 
examined amounted to from 6.15 to 11.4 per cent. Strongly salted 
caviar is of inferior value and caviar saturated with salt is not suit- 



* Concerning the quality of the Elbe caviar, Bischoff states that as a rule it 
is a suspicious product. Sturgeons are at present almost never observed in the 
Elbe. It is asserted that the product which is sold under the name Elbe caviar 
is usually decomposing American caviar which has been subjected to a subse- 
quent process of preservation. 



784 



ADDITION OF FLOUR TO SAUSAGE 



able for human food. Likewise, decomposing caviar must be 
characterized as unfit for food. As helps for judging caviar, it is 
recommended that the reaction be determined ; furthermore, that a 
quantitative demonstration of free fatty acids and salt be made, and, 
finally, that the amount of free ammonia and sulphuretted hydrogen 
be determined. 

Adulteration of Shrimps. — Two kinds of so-called shrimps occur 
on the market: the common shrimp (Crangon vulgaris) and the 



Pig. 252. 



CL 




Crangon vulgaris, a, median spine ; i, inner antennal filaments ; e, external antennal 

filaments; d, third appendage; e, the five ambulatory appendages; /, sixt^ 

abdominal appendage. (After H. Raebiger.) 



Fig. 253. 




Palaemon squilla. a, rosti'um; i, inner antennal filaments; c, outer antennal 
ments ; d, third appendage ; e, the five ambulatory appendages ; /, sixth 
abdominal appendage. (After H. Raebiger.) 



fila- 



prawn (Palaemon squilla). The latter is the more valuable of the 
two, since it possesses a better flavor and is more edible than the 
former. It assumes an appetizing red color in cooking and is also 
rarer than the common shrimp. The price of common shrimp is 20 
to 60 pfen., and of prawns, 1.6 to 3 marks per pound. This differ- 
ence in price makes an adulteration of the last-named species a 



OTHER ADULTERATIONS 785 

profitable practice and this has recently been done by boiling, in 
fuchsin water, the common shrimp, which normally remains gray in 
cooking. Boiled common shrimps thereby acquire the character 
which ordinary people consider as the most important criterion for 
recognizing the prawn. 

The adulterated shrimp or imitation prawn may, according to 
Raebiger, be recognized by the following characters : Red coloration 
of artificially-stained shrimps is spotted. Moreover, the broken off 
ends of the abdomen are totally stained and the eggs which are 
found under the abdomen are bright red. In some parts of the 
shrimp the coloring material penetrates even into the meat. Artifi- 
cial coloring may also be demonstrated by boiling shrimps in 
alcohol. Artificially stained shrimps lend the alcohol a cloudy 
rose-red color, while with naturally red prawn the alcohol remains 
whitish yellow. 

The prawn are characterized by the strongly projecting frontal 
spine, the long-peduncled eyes, the larger number of antennal fila- 
ments, the chelipers on a number of the ambulatory appendages 
and the bright-red telson, as contrasted with the short spine, 
short-peduncled eyes, less numerous and shorter antennal filaments, 
different anatomical structure of the ambulatory appendages and 
the darkly pigmented telson of the shrimp (Figs. 252, 253). 

Fraudulent Treatment of Salmon. — According to Raebiger, the 
following salmon are found in trade : The Rhine, Weser, Elbe, 
American, Baltic, Volga or Russian, saltwater (common hake), and, 
finally, the fagonlachs. The Rhine salmon (Trutta salar) is the 
most expensive. It costs from 5 to 8 marks per pound, and other 
species of salmon of less value are, therefore, frequently used to 
replace it. The Rhine salmon is distinguished by its rose-red 
color of slightly yellowish tinge, strong development of white fat,, 
the elongated, oval, silvery- white scales, becoming black- brown 
toward the dorsal line, and also by the fact that the dorsal and 
ventral lines approach each other toward the head. The Rhine 
salmon swims up stream in a fat condition for the purpose of 
spawning and returns to the sea in a poor condition with pale meat. 
When caught returning to the North Sea, they are called poor 
"Rheinsalm." The Elbe and Weser salmon are identical with the 
Rhine salmon, but, according to the opinion of connoisseurs, are 
not so valuable as the latter. The American salmon* (probably 

* The most important Alaskan salmon are King salmon, redfish, cohoes, 
humpbacks and dog salmon. — Translator's Note. 



786 COLORING AND INFLATION OF MEAT 

OncorhyncJms quinnat), which, on account of its coarse-fibered meat 
and very salty taste, brings a price of 2 to 4 marks, possesses a 
rose-red or brick-red meat, well developed intermuscular connective 
tissue and myomeres, and exhibits much less fat than the Rhine 
salmon. The salmon which occurs in the Baltic is less highly 
prized for its meat than the North Sea salmon ; its meat possesses 
the typical salmon color, is very fat and its intermuscular connec- 
tive tissue is less strongly developed than in the American salmon. 
The Baltic salmon during its migrations reaches the Weichsel and 
the Memmel, is identical with the Russian salmon and possesses 
small round scales. The Volga salmon is either an American or 
Baltic salmon. Saltwater salmon or hake {Merluccius vulgaris) is a 
species belonging to the gadoid group and not to the Salmonidse. 
It is characterized by its almost white meat, which contains but 
little fat. Finally, do-over salmon (faconlachs), which is prepared 
by pressing together the waste pieces, is recognizable by the 
absence of the connective tissue strands, or by their regular course 
upon a cut surface. 

2.— Coloring. 

The artificial coloring of large pieces of meat, minced meat and 
especially sausages, belongs among the achievements of the most 
questionable sort, which characterize the modern meat industry. 

Purpose. — The purpose of coloring meat varies. The materials 
for the technical foundation for the draft of the food law contain the 
statement that a sausage mass. which has lost its natural coloring 
by the excessive addition of flour and water is frequently colored 
with fuchsin in order to conceal this defect. From a study of court 
proceedings it appears that the artificial coloration of sausages 
from this cause is less frequent than in the case of minced meat 
which is intended for sale as such. Furthermore, we learn from 
court proceedings that in recent times the coloration of meat is 
practiced rather extensively with the object of concealing the gray 
color of sausages intended for long keeping. This alteration of 
color is common in sausages, even in those which have been 
properly prepared (page 749). Bischoff asserts that until the 
authorities interfered in this matter, about 70 per cent, of all the 
sausages imported from Thuringen were colored for the reason 
just mentioned. At present, it is said, the percentage is much 
smaller. Finally, there are unscrupulous dealers who do not hesi- 
tate to give, by means of coloring materials, the appearance of 



C0L0EING 787 

I 

wholesome products to meat which has lost its normal color as a 
result of decomposition. 

Kinds of Coloeing Mateeial. — The dyes which are used for , 
coloring meat products are of various sorts. It appears that the 
first experiments in coloring meat were made with fuchsin. Since, 
however, this stain could easily be demonstrated, coloration with 
cochineal and carmin prepared from cochineal (ammoniacal extract 
of cochineal) came into use. Carmin is sold on the market under 
the name of " karnit." A very small quantity of either of these dyes 
is sufficient to produce a bright red color in the meat, since the 
staining power of these materials is very great. According to 
Falk and Oppermann, a carmin solution of 1:30,000 is sufficient to 
stain the meat red. 

According to Marpmann, in addition to fuchsin and carmin, 
other dyes have recently been used for staining meat, including 
safranin, eosin and red vegetable dyes, from saturated stains of red 
berries, beets and roots to yellow crocus. According to Bischoff, 
moreover, azo-dyes have been used for this purpose. These 
materials are added under the most various names, in part calcu- 
lated to deceive ("rosalin," "carmin substitute," "blood color," 
"blackberry red," "stabil," " cervelatwurst salt with spice," 
"alkermessaft)." Rosalin is a carmin preparation. Carmin sub- 
stitute, on the other hand, is an azo-dye (Bischoff) ; blood color 
consists of starch colored red by anilin dyes (Baumert). Another 
anilin dye sometimes used is the so-called brilliant-berolina 
(Polenske). Corallin is used for coloring sausage casings. The 
use of this dye is forbidden by the law of June 5, 1887, concerning 
the utilization of injurious coloring materials in the preparation of 
food, for the reason that it frequently contains phenol. According 
to their effects, as shown by Juckenack and Sendtner, the dyes 
utilized in coloring sausages may be divided into three groups : 
(1) Those which stain the meat portions, but leave the fat un- 
colored. (2) Those which color finely minced meat and fat 
uniformly red. (3) Those which are soluble in fat and which con- 
sequently color finely or moderately finely minced meat and fat 
uniformly and throughout. If stained with members of group ,1, 
the sausage when rendered contains uncolored fat, while, if stained 
with group 3, the fat is of a bright red color. 

Demonsteation of Dye Stuffs. — Lehmann recommends for 
the demonstration of fuchsin in sausages extraction with ethyl or 



788 COLORING AND INFLATION OF MEAT 

amyl alcohol. " If a distinct red coloring matter is dissolved out,, 
the sausages are evidently stained with artificial dyes." 

According to Fleck, comminuted meat samples are treated with 
amyl alcohol as long as the latter shows any red color. The larger 
portion of the solvent is distilled; the remainder is volatilized on 
the water bath and the residue dissolved in petroleum ether. The 
reddish-brown solution thus obtained is shaken together with 
absolute alcohol after the addition of a few drops of dilute sul- 
phuric acid 1:4. The petroleum ether together with the fat which 
may be present then comes to lie as a layer upon the alcoholic 
fuchsin solution. The latter is repeatedly washed in a filter with 
petroleum ether until the ether leaves no residue of fat after 
evaporating. The alcoholic fuchsin solution, thus carefully 
obtained, is now diluted with an excess of ammonia. The ammo- 
nium sulphate which is formed is separated by filtration from the 
fluid which is now colored slightly yellow, and the latter is evapor- 
ated in a tared platinum or glass cup. 

From 80 to 85 per cent, of the fuchsin used in coloring the 
meat should be demonstrated by Fleck's method. 

For the demonstration of cochineal, Klinger and Bujard first 
suggested a method which is based on extraction by means of 
glycerin. » 

Twenty grams of finely minced sausage is boiled on a water 
bath with a mixture of equal parts of water and glycerin. If cochi- 
neal is present, a conspicuously red colored solution is obtained in 
a short time. In the absence of this dye, the glycerin is not at all 
stained or at most somewhat yellowish. After cooling, the solution 
is filtered and if only small quantities of the dye have been dissolved 
the process is repeated with the filtrate obtained from another 20 
grams of sausage. The perfectly clear, and, what is of special 
importance, fat free, more or less red colored glycerin solution may, 
as a rule, be then directly examined by means of the spectroscope, 
during which the absorption bands characteristic of carmiu may be 
plainly recognized in all cases. Otherwise the carmin-lac may be 
precipitated out of the solution in the usual manner. This sub- 
stance is then collected upon a filter and dissolved in a small 
quantity of tartaric acid. A quite concentrated solution of the 
dye is thus obtained with which the usual reactions may be demon- 
strated. 

According to Petsch, extraction with ammoniacal alcohol js a 
more rational method. By shaking the samples of colored sausage 
in a vessel containing ammoniacal alcohol, a more intensive colora- 



COLORING 789 

tion of the filtrate appears than with glycerin extraction. Petsch, 
therefore, proposes, as a method for the demonstration of foreign 
coloring materials in sausage, that after negative results from the 
amyl alcohol test, the comminuted sample should be treated with a 
•mixture of alcohol and ammonia by the cold method. Spath 
recommends extraction with a 5 per cent, solution of sodium salicy- 
late as a preliminary test in the demonstration of carmin from 
analin dyes in sausage. The minced sausage is warmed on a water 
bath in this solution for fifteen minutes. It is then allowed to cool 
and is filtered. The filtrate is stained if artificial coloring materials 
are present. In old sausages (two years old) Polenske found that 
carmin was readily recognized by the color of the extract, while the 
analin dye (brilliant-berolina) was not. However, when the extracts 
were treated' with dilute sulphuric acid, the salicylic acid was 
separated with a yellowish white color in the case of non-colored 
samples of sausage, while with sausages stained with carmin or 
brilliant-berolina, the salicylic acid was colored crimson. 

In order to be able to demonstrate even small quantities of 
carmin, Bremer recommends that in suspicious samples of sausage, 
extraction of the coloring material should be attempted not only 
with alcohol, amyl alcohol, or alcohol and glycerin, but also with a 
slightly acidified (tartaric or hydrochloric acid) mixture of glycerin 
and water in equal parts. From this solution, which, moreover, in 
the presence of acids, is colored merely yellowish, the coloring 
material may be precipitated as lac. This is brought about by 
boiling the fluid with ammonia and diluting with water and allowing 
to settle. After twenty-four hours, if small quantities of carmin are 
present, a deep crimson precipitation is formed which may be col- 
lected on the filter. 

On the basis of extensive experiments, Polenske considers a 
combination of the methods of Bremer and Spath as most suitable 
in demonstrating artificial dyestuffs in sausages. Polenske recom- 
mends a solution containing 5 grams salicylate of soda, 50 cc. of 
water and 5 cc. of glycerin. Twenty grams of the sausage is pressed 
into a paste, 30 cc. of the extraction fluid added, and the whole 
heated on a water bath for half an hour with repeated stirring. 
After cooling, the whole is pressed through gauze and filtered. 

The presence of "carmin substitute " is easily demonstrated by 
a boiling test. In boiling a piece of sausage, the fat stains red and 
floats like red oil on water (Bischoff). 

Marpmann and Spath recommend a microscopic examination 
.as a certain method of demonstrating dyestuffs in sausage. Under 



790 COLORING AND INFLATION OF MEAT 

the microscope one recognizes artificial coloration by the fact that iso- 
lated portions of tissue paper appear to be stained red, while fresh 
tissue, even from smoked meat, exhibits a yellowish, yellowish-green 
or yellowish-gray color. According to Polenske, however, the 
microscopic demonstration of dyes tuffs in smoked sausages is not . 
easily made, while a chemical demonstration offers no difficulty, 
even in case of smoked sausages two years old. A microscopic 
examination, however, may serve as a test for orientation. Marp- 
mann considers as most suitable the following method of 
microscopic determination of dyestuffs in sausage: 

A piece of sausage to be examined is macerated in water. It is 
then saturated with 50 per cent, alcohol, after which the coloration 
of the salts may be recognized. Sausages which when covered with 
50 per cent, alcohol possess a decolorized appearance after standing 
for two hours at ordinary living temperature must be considered as 
unstained, while, conversely, if the sausage still possesses a color, 
it is sufficient evidence of adulteration by artificial stains. If one 
treats a sausage with carbol xylol and replaces the latter with 
tetrachloromethane, treatment with cedar oil renders the prepara- 
tion more favorable for a microscopic examination. 

Official Directions for Demonstrating Coloring Matters 
IN Sausages. — The Berlin Police President issued the following 
directions for the demonstration of dyestuffs in sausages for the 
food control stations which are under the direction of the district 
veterinarians : 

1. Small pieces weighing about 10 gm. of the sausage to be 
tested are placed in a test tube and covered with a mixture of offi- 
cinal glycerin and water, so that the pieces of sausages are about 1 
cm. beneath the surface of the fluid. If, after the test tube has been 
kept for fifteen minutes on a boiling water bath, the fat layer upon 
the glycerin or the glycerin water itself or both fluids are colored 
red the sausage must be considered as artificially colored with 
carmin or azo-dyes. 

2. If by the application of the method just described a negative 
result is obtained, a piece of sausage weighing about 10 grams is to 
be placed in a cold mixture of officinal ammonia and water in the 
proportion of 1 : 3. If after some time the sausage exhibits violet 
red, or crimson spots, it must be considered as having been colored 
with carmin powder. 

3. If these tests give a negative result, a portion of the sausage 
is to be heated in 95 per cent, alcohol. If the alcohol is colored 



COLORING 791 

red the sausage must be considered as having been dyed with 
fuchsin. 

4. The application of these methods is left to the discretion of 
the veterinarians. 

Against the above directions, Weller and Eiegel have raised 
the objection that they may fail to give results, since sausages which 
are made from meat prepared with saltpeter always yield a bright 
red colored fluid after treatment with the solvents mentioned in the 
above directions. 

Weller and Eiegel demonstrated by means of spectrum analysis 
that the coloring material, which is soluble in ether, alcohol and in 
aqueous and alcoholic glycerin, but which does not stain wool, is 
methemoglobin. The modification of the hemoglobin into a per- 
manent red coloring matter under the influence of saltpeter appears 
to be a specific peculiarity of the hemoglobin of hog blood, since in 
a control experiment with calf's blood, only small quantities of 
yellow coloring materials were obtained in the ether which was used 
as an extraction reagent. The experiments which were instituted 
by Weller and Eiegel, however, as indicated by Juckenack and 
Sendtner, do not correspond with actual conditions, for it never 
occurs in practice that meat sausages intended for long keeping are 
prepared by adding blood, since blood would reduce the keeping 
property of the sausages. 

Judgment. — The dye stuffs which are used for coloring sau- 
sages are not injurious from the nature of their composition, nor do 
they produce a substantial depreciation of the value of the meat or 
meat products on account of the quantity which is added. Never- 
theless, from the standpoint of meat inspection and also from the 
legal standpoint, the addition of dye stuffs must be treated as an 
adulteration, and this is right and just. 

It is undoubtedly a case of adulteration if the coloration 
deceives the consumer concerning the age of the meat, as in the 
case of mince meat, or with regard to the fraudulent addition of 
flour and water. It is an adulteration and also a violation of Sec. 
12 of the Food Law if decomposing meat is colored and offered for 
sale,* for decomposing meat is injurious to health (page 757). 

It is only in the case of the coloration of otherwise good sau- 
sage intended for long keeping that judgment may be doubtful. 

* Reich ardt (cited from Lehmann) describes an outbreak of illness which 
affected a whole family and was due to colored sausage. It is highly probable 
that in this case the sausage was prepared from decomposing meat. 



792 COLORING AND INFLATION OF MEAT 

This is done in order to conceal the gray color of the sausage and, 
according to the statements of Bischoff, is extensively practiced in 
Thiiringen, but even in this locality the courts without exception 
condemn the practice on the basis of Sec. 10 of the Food Law, since 
fuchsin and cochineal are not constituents of normal sausage and 
since the addition of these dye stuffs is made for the purpose of giv- 
ing the sausage the appearance of freshness and increased nutritive 
qualities. Moreover, Bremer rightly states that coloration may 
conceal not only the gray color, but also other decomposition 
processes in sausage, which may spoil the taste of the sausage. 
It is stated that in Munich sausages have repeatedly been examined 
which, at first glance at the fresh, smoothly cut surface, would be 
considered as excellent material, while they were absolutely inedible, 
except to a perverted palate. Thus, for example, in the institution 
for the examination of foods in Munich, cervelatwurst was found of 
very good external appearance, but exhibiting a rather bright red 
color on the cut surface. It possessed an acid content of 76 per 
cent., however, and was literally inedible. Moreover, with the 
utilization of azo-dyes, which give a red color to the fat, the appear- 
ance of pure meat sausage is produced.* Finally, it should be 
observed that hundreds of sausage makers in Gotha, which is the 
chief location for the manufacture of cervelatwurst, have declared 
that the prohibition of the use of dye stuffs would be to the interest 
of reliable dealers ; for, with the help of dye stuffs, cheap American 
beef may be worked over into sausages, and thereby the good 
reputation of domestic sausages may suffer. 

Decisions of the Eeichgericht. — The coloration of the gills 
of fish with red dye stuffs in order to give them the appearance 
of fresh fish is an instance of adulteration (Decision II., Criminal 
Senate, December 2, 1891). Likewise, the coloration of sausage by 
means of dye stuffs in order to preserve the color of fresh products 

* Juckenack and Sendtner have demonstrated by means of analyses that the 
addition of dye stuffs makes possible the preparation of sausage intended for long 
keeping with a higher fat and water content or, in other words, sausages which 
are of inferior value as compared with uncolored sausages. 

The sausages exhibited the following average conditions : 

Deficiency Excess of Excess of 

in lean meat. fat. water. 

Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. 

1 kg. colored mettwurst 22.96 14.68 14.68 

1 kg. colored cervelatwurst 22.67 7.44 14.92 

1 kg. colored salami wurst 22.41 7.19 15.56 



INFLATION 793 

for a period during which without such manipulation it would be 
apparent from the alteration of the natural color that the products 
were not fresh (Decision III., Criminal Senate, February 18, 1882). 

The Position of the Imperial Health Office with Regard 
to the Coloration of Sausages. — Concerning the coloration of 
sausages, the Imperial Health Office has published a memorial, the 
gist of which may be stated in the following propositions : 

1. If meat rich in natural coloring matter is utilized with 
proper regard to care and cleanliness, a uniformly red colored sau- 
sage, suitable for long keeping, may be prepared without the help 
•of artificial dye stuffs. 

2. The addition of dye stuffs makes it possible to lend the 
appearance of a better quality to a sausage which is prepared from 
less suitable material or with insufficient care, and the purchasers 
are thus deceived concerning the true character of the sausage. 

3. In accord with the principles laid down by the Eeich- 
gericht, the majority of the courts which have considered this ques- 
tion assume that the artificial coloration of sausages, which has 
become established in many regions, can not be considered as 
legitimate business practice from the standpoint of the food law. 

4. By the utilization of poisonous dye stuffs, the consumption 
of sausages colored with them may be injurious to human health.* 

3. — Inflation. 

Purpose. — The inflation of whole calves and sheep, as well as 
the lungs of these animals, is considered by the butchers as a tradi- 
tion of their trade, so well founded that strong objections were 
raised when the authorities in many localities decided to prohibit 
the practice. Butchers especially assert that the process of remov- 
ing the skins from the animals just mentioned is made much easier 
after inflation. Daily experience in abattoirs, however, where infla- 
tion is forbidden, teaches that skinning of calves and sheep — in the 
latter inflation is a much more general custom than in the former — 
does not offer any special difficulties, even without artificial infla- 
tion with air forced into the subcutaneous connective tissue. The 



* By order of the Federal Council of February 16, 1902, the artificial colora- 
tion of meat and meat products, with the exception of the coloration of sausage 
casings, is forbidden in the whole German Empire from and after October 1, 
1902. 



794 COLOKING AND INFLATION OF MEAT 

actual reason of the objection of tradesmen to the prohibition of 
inflation from the side of the authorities is, therefore, doubtless, 
not the reason alleged, but another, namely, that it is possible, by 
means of inflation, to increase the apparent value of the meat. 
Meat is rendered more plump and of better appearance by inflation. 
It is very doubtful whether, as Schinidt-Mulheim assumes, it also 
becomes more appetizing. This appears to be a matter of taste. 
The effect sought in inflation is at any rate a possible advantage 
for the butcher in all cases in which poor, immature animals are 
concerned, which do not produce a favorable impression in the non- 
inflated condition. 

In the case of the lungs, a volume is obtained by means of 
inflation which is not seen in them in the non-inflated condition. 
In this case it can not be denied that the organs are not only of 
better appearance, but that they exhibit a more appetizing exterior 
than when not thus treated. On the other hand, inflation makes it 
possible to substitute inferior hog and sheep lungs for the more 
valuable calf lungs. This substitution may be accomplished to the 
satisfaction of the laity more easily than when inflation is for- 
bidden. 

Schmidt-Mulheim mentions an increase in the keeping property 
of the meat as a hygienic advantage in inflation, provided that this, 
operation is done by means of bellows with air filtered through cot- 
ton. The lymph which remains in the subcutaneous and inter- 
muscular connective tissue is forced into the larger lymph vessels 
by the pressure of the air, and the drying-out of the subcutis, an 
important factor in the keeping quality of meat, is thus favored by 
the enlargement of the body surface due to inflation. In this con- 
nection, however, experience also teaches that we may well dispense 
with inflation without exposing the meat to a more rapid process of 
spoiling. 

In addition to calves and sheep, light, poorly fed geese are also 
inflated, with fraudulent intent. 

Technique. — Inflation is done in its simplest form by means of 
the mouth. As a rule, the lungs are inflated in this manner. For 
inflating whole animals, however, tradesmen usually employ a bel- 
lows. These possess a pointed canula, which is introduced into the 
subcutis in any part of the body through a slit in the skin. The 
air after being forced into the subcutis is distributed over the whole 
surface of the body by rubbing with the hand. Geese are inflated 
by means of a quill. 



INFLATION 795 

Recognition. — It is not difficult to recognize the inflated condi- 
tion of a whole animal. This condition is apparent at first glance 
from the unusual size of the slaughtered animal and from the 
peculiar sheen exhibited by the subcutis in place of the cloudy- 
character of the panniculus adiposus or of the pure white appear- 
ance of the subcutaneous tissue which is not filled with fat. A 
spongy feeling on palpation and a crackling sound are conspicuous. 

The detection of inflated lungs is not so simple. The condi- 
tion of such lungs is best understood by making an inflation, 
experiment. If warm lungs are inflated by means of a tube inserted 
into the trachea, under slight pressure, the lungs swell greatly, the 
mediastinal surfaces come to lie in contact and the borders of the 
lungs become unusually sharp. The inflation ' is uniform and 
appears also in the anterior lobes, which consequently do not hang 
down or at the side, but stand out in the natural direction from the 
principal lobes. Moreover, as a rule, sub-pleural emphysema is 
observed as a result of excessive mechanical tension, and rupture of 
the alveolar walls by the pressure of the air. 

All of these points should be carefully observed, for, since the 
prohibition of inflation has come into force, butchers have found 
another method of producing "large" lungs, which can not be con- 
demned. This consists in the clever utilization of the mechanics 
of the thorax. After the exenteration of the abdominal cavity, and 
after the incision is made through the ischio-pubic symphysis, the 
animals are hung by the posterior extremities on gambrels, the 
hind legs are forced as far apart as possible, and the abdominal 
walls above the sternal cartilage are likewise forced apart by means 
of wooden braces. The artificial enlargement of the thorax causes 
an excessive inspiration into the air-tight lungs and this air is 
retained after the removal of the lungs from the thorax, if the 
removal does not take place too soon, but only after the appear- 
ance of a more or less complete rigor mortis. Such lungs with 
artificially increased inspiration are distinguished, however, from 
inflated lungs by their smaller size, less sharp borders, the absence 
of interstitial emphysema and, finally, by the flabby character of 
the anterior lobes. The latter possess only a medium air content, 
and, therefore, hang to the side or downward, for the artificial 
enlargement of the thorax on account of the natural anatomicaL 
conditions is greater in the posterior parts of the lungs and much 
less in the anterior parts. 

A condition which resembles inflation is occasionally observed 
in the lungs of slaughtered cattle when aspirated fodder balls 



79G COLORING AND INFLATION OF MEAT 

become wedged in the trachea or in the chief bronchi, as a result 
of violent inspirations during bleeding, so that they can not be 
driven out again by expiration. 

Judgment. — While it can not be denied that the inflation of 
■whole animals renders skinning easier and increases their keeping 
quality, nevertheless experience teaches that these advantages of 
inflation may well be dispensed with by tradesmen. Moreover, 
inflation is a trade custom the prohibition of which is justified for 
hygienic and commercial reasons. 

With but few exceptions, consumers might reasonably reject a 
food material which is filled with the expired air of another person. 
In addition to the subjective feeling, however, it should also be 
remembered that in inflation by means of the mouth numerous 
putrefactive, often pathogenic, bacteria are inoculated into the meat 
and thus the advantage of increased keeping qualities is not real- 
ized, while under certain circumstances the meat may be given an 
actually dangerous quality. Putrefactive bacteria are also forced 
into the meat, even when the bellows is employed, if the filtering 
apparatus for the air recommended by Schmidt-Mulheim is not used 
in connection with the bellows. 

Moreover, in any individual case it can not be determined 
whether the animal body or a lung has been inflated by means of 
bellows or with the mouth. A general prohibition of inflation is, 
therefore, sufficiently justified by the reasons which have already 
been mentioned. 

It should also be remembered that the less observing pur- 
chasers may be deceived concerning the true character of the 
products in consequence of inflation and consumers may be enticed 
into buying meat which they perhaps would not have bought in an 
uninflated condition. 

Decision of the Reichgericht. — The Reichgericht declared in 
a decision of May 27, 1888, that inflated meat must be considered as 
spoiled in the sense of Sec. 367 7 of the Criminal Law Statutes, and 
must, therefore, be absolutely excluded from the market. The case 
in question concerned the offering for sale of a leg of veal which 
had been inflated with the mouth. The Reichgericht held that the 
meat into which air had been forced by means of the mouth was dis- 
gusting to the majority of consumers and was thereby, as well as 
from the fact of the danger of the transmission of pathogenic organ- 
isms from the person who inflated it, unsuited for ordinary con- 



INFLATION 797 

sumption. Moreover, it was considered that the meat was depre- 
ciated below its normal condition and was thus rendered of inferior 
value. 

Prohibition of Inflation. — A circular letter of the Koyal Prus- 
sian Ministries of February 13, 1885, recommends to the Govern- 
ment presidents the decree of a police regulation against inflation 
of meat. The inflation of meat with the mouth had already been 
prohibited by decree of the Ressort minister of August 17, 1861, 
and furthermore under the decree of November 15, 1879, the abso- 
lute prohibition of inflation was declared to be justifiable. Accord- 
ingly, the inflation of meat in Berlin as well as in the governmental 
districts of Konigsberg, Frankfurt, Posen and Bromberg was for- 
bidden. 

The Prussian Kammergericht, on an appeal of a butcher 
against an unfavorable judgment of the Landgericht in Frankfurt, 
decided that police ordinances forbidding inflation were legal. 



XVI. 
PRESERVATION OF MEAT. 



As with milk, so also with meat, we may speak of a certain 
keeping quality. While, however, in the case of milk, the keeping 
property may be endangered and destroyed by acid and zymogenic 
(bacteria, in meat it is the putrefactive bacteria, those " ubiquitous 
organisms " which are everywhere present and which wait only for 
a favorable opportunity to induce decomposition in meat. The 
keeping property of meat depends upon various conditions. Atten- 
tion has already been called (page 711) to the fact that the meat of 
animals slaughtered on account of disease is characterized by poor 
keeping property. For the rest, however, the keeping power of 
the meat depends chiefly upon the temperature and moisture con- 
tent of the air in the room in which the meat is preserved. In 
cold, dry rooms meat keeps much longer than in warm, moist 
rooms. This fact finds its natural explanation in the biological 
products of putrefactive bacteria. The latter thrive in a certain 
moisture content of the nutritive substratum and at a temperature 
which is not too low. One necessary condition of good keeping 
property of wholesome meat is, therefore, a careful cooling immedi- 
ately after slaughter, since the animal heat is the optimum 
temperature for the growth and multiplication of putrefactive bac- 
teria. By the application of artificial agents — so-called preserving 
agents — it is possible to increase the normal keeping power of meat. 
The preserving agents are of a chemical and physical nature. The 
iormer are utilized more extensively in traffic in meat preparations, 
while the latter are more applicable to the traffic in unprepared 
meat. 

It is doubtful whether it is possible to protect meat from 
decomposition by preservation in sterile air. The Argentine Govern- 
ment is said to have made an experiment in preserving fresh meat in 
sterile air in special rooms on transport vessels. The method of 

798 



KEEPING QUALITY OF MEAT 799 

Emmerich was also devised for the purpose of accomplishing sterile 
preservation. 

This method consists in exenterating and cutting up food 
animals with instruments rendered aseptic by passing them through 
a flame. The natural casing of the meat, viz., the skin, fat, connec- 
tive tissue, etc., are not removed. The surface of those portions of 
the meat not covered by the skin are sprinkled with glacial acetic 
acid and the pieces of meat to be preserved are finally packed in 
sawdust for the purpose of keeping them dry. The sawdust is sat- 
urated with common salt and heated and dried at a temperature of 
180° C. 

How long will meat keep under the ordinary conditions of 
preservation ? Concerning this important question, accurate state- 
ments are found only in a work which has already become historical, 
namely, in Johann Peter Frank's " System einer vollstandigen 
medizinischen Polizei." Mannheim : 1804. Frank makes the fol- 
lowing statements : The learned contributions to the Braunschwei- 
gischen Anzeigen of 1773 contain a table on the length of time 
during which raw meat may be kept in the air without spoiling. 
The table gives the following data for the keeping power of meat of 
different origins : 

In Summer hi Winter 

Days Days 

Deer 4 8 

Wild boar 6 10 

Hare , 3 6 

Pheasant 4 10 

Black grouse 4 10 

Woodgrouse 6 14 

Partridge 2 6-8 

Cattle and hogs 3 6 

Sheep 2 3 

Calves and lambs 2 -4 

Turkeys and geese ^ 4 8 

Capons 3 6 

Old roosters 3 6 

Young roosters 2 4 

Young pigeons 2 4 

Naturally, as observed by Frank, this table would not hold true 
for all climates and all kinds of game. 

" On sultry days and during thunder storms, meat may begin 
to decompose within one-half day." 



800 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 



1. — Chemical Preservatives. 

The most common methods of preserving meat by means of 
chemical materials are those of salting and pickling. Moreover, 
the disinfecting agents, boric, salicylic and sulphurous acid, are 
used in the preservation of meat. Smoking is a combination method 
of preservation in which chemical materials and hot air act 
together. 

With regard to the application and effectiveness, as well as the 
advantages and disadvantages of the various preserving agents, the 
following statements may be made : 

(a) Salting- and Pickling. 

Application. — Common salt is used especially in the preserva- 
tion of bacon sides and hams. Moreover, in America and Australia, 
beef is prepared for export by means of salt (" salt meat "). Salt 
is either rubbed into the pieces of meat in a dry condition (salting) 
or is applied in the form of a salt brine (pickling). For determining 
the salt content of the brine a so-called alkalimeter is employed, 
which is constructed according to the principle of Quevenne's 
hydrometer. The introduction of brine syringes marked an impor- 
tant step in advance in the field of preservation technique. These 
syringes end in a long, hollow needle which is introduced deeply 
into the connective tissue lying between the bones and muscles. By 
means of brine syringes it is possible, in a very short time, uni- 
formly to impregnate large pieces of meat, especially hams, with 
salt water. This result would not be possible by simply laying the 
meat in salt brine. In large meat salting establishments, brine 
pumps, constructed on the principle of the force pump, are used. 
Ruppert and others recommend pickling in iron tanks from which 
the air has been exhausted and in which the pickling brine is 
allowed to penetrate the meat under pressure for a period of seven 
to eight hour3. Pickling is thereby said to be more uniform than 
by the old method and much accelerated, so that the whole process 
of pickling hams requires only fourteen days, while by the old 
pickling method six to nine weeks were required. By means of a 
patent apparatus (rapid pickling apparatus " Meteor "), it is said 
that pickling takes place so rapidly that meat may be prepared 
ready for sale and cutting up within one to two days. 



salting and pickling 801 

Pickling Theough the Medium of the Circulatory System. — 
The Swedish, investigator, Fjelstrup, recently attempted to introduce 
a method of pickling which utilizes the circulatory system for trans- 
porting pickling brine. The animals are killed by shooting, the 
hair is removed from hogs in the usual manner after death. The 
blood is still perfectly fluid under ordinary circumstances and this 
is a necessary condition for the success of the injection. The ani- 
mal is then placed on its back in a trough table, so that the blood 
may run off completely. The thoracic cavity is opened by a long 
incision through the soft parts and by sawing through the sternum, 
and a canula is introduced through the left ventricle into the aorta 
and ligated. A pump is connected with the canula, by means of 
which the salt brine after the right side of the heart is opened, is 
forced in under a pressure equal to the normal aortic pressure. 
The salt brine thus forces the blood out through the right side of 
the heart and at the same time fills the blood system. The process 
requires from three to four minutes. After being cut up, allowed 
to cool and lying for a short time, the meat is ready for export or 
smoking. Cattle and sheep are injected with sterilized water or 
very weak brine immediately after death, in order to force out the 
blood. 

This process is not new. J. P. Prank, in hi3 " System," already 
referred to, states : " According to the statements of the Englishman 
Hales, an attempt has been made to inject with saltwater the blood 
vessels of animals which have been killed by bleeding. This is 
done in order to preserve the meat longer. This method was first 
tested in Madagascar and is really the most rapid method of thor- 
oughly saturating the meat." 

Experiments with the new methods of preservation are not yet 
complete. According to Kuhnau, the public objects to the utiliza- 
tion of injected meat in the form of fresh meat on the ground that 
it retains its red color in cooking. 

Pickling With the Aid of Electricity. — The South Ameri- 
can author Pinto claims that rapid pickling (within ten to twenty 
hours) may be brought about by passing an electric current through 
the meat while lying in the brine. 

Effect. — The preserving action of brine depends upon the dry- 
ing effect as a result of the extraction of water. Furthermore, 
chloride of sodium possesses slight disinfecting properties. The 
disinfecting action of salt consists in a general check upon the mul- 



802 PEESEEVATION OF MEAT 

tiplication of micro-organisms, the prevention of the powerful pro- 
teolytic action of these organisms, even in a comparatively dilute 
solution, and the reduction of the chemical functions of certain 
organisms (Petterson). 

Salt does not exhibit a pronounced checking effect upon micro- 
organisms except in solutions of from 20 to 23 per cent. 
In a concentration of 5 per cent, it hinders the multiplica- 
tion of obligate anaerobes, but not that of facultative anaerobes and 
aerobes. Putrefactive bacteria are much more susceptible to the 
action of salt than cocci. In general the growth of bacilli is checked 
by a 10 per cent, solution of salt. Some of them, however, endure 
a concentration of 12 per cent, and occasionally one of 15 per cent, 
in pure cultures in bouillon. The majority of cocci thrive even in 
a solution containing 15 per cent, of salt. 

Salt is well adapted for use in the preservation of the meat of 
healthy animals. The action of salt upon pathogenic bacteria in 
meat, however, has been considerably overestimated, although J. 
P. Frank, at the close of the 18th century, stated : " Brine on meat 
which is fundamentally spoiled is nothing more than an unwhole- 
some broth, and if any one believes that salt can extract the poison 
from suspicious meat in the manner in which it dissolves the aque- 
ous parts thereof, such a person would allow his imagination to 
influence his most important business dealings for very slight rea- 
sons." Frank rightly characterizes the pickling of the meat of 
diseased animals as " painting with a sort of health varnish," and 
called attention to the fact that pickling has no other effect upon 
the meat of diseased animals than to preserve it from total decom- 
position in the same manner as it preserves healthy meat. This 
empirical demonstration of the great sanitarian of the 18th cen- 
tury has been confirmed from a scientific standpoint by recent exact 
experiments. According to the experiments of Forster, pathogenic 
staphylococci, the streptococcus of erysipelas and the bacilli of 
swine erysipelas, remain alive for weeks and months when pure cul- 
tures of these micro-organisms are covered with salt. Tubercle 
bacilli in cultures treated in the same manner proved virulent after 
two months. Pieces of tuberculous organs finely minced also proved 
to be virulent after lying in salt brine for eighteen days. Anthrax 
bacilli were destroyed in from eighteen to twenty-four hours. 
Anthrax cultures, however, containing spores, retained their viru- 
lence for months, despite treatment with salt. Salting the meat of 
diseased animals has, therefore, by no means the high value which 
is commonly ascribed to this method of preservation. 



SALTING AND PICKLING 803 

The effect of salt manifests itself in the meat by a decoloriza- 
tion of the musculature. In order to prevent this result, it is 
customary to add saltpeter to the salt brine.* According to Glage, 
however, the persistence of the red color of meat is not due to salt- 
peter, but to the effect of the nitrites and perhaps nitric oxide, 
which are formed from the saltpeter in the brine. In cooked meat 
products, the addition of a small quantity of nitre to the pickling 
salt is a sure means of producing the red color. Also in the case of 
raw meat products it is not the saltpeter, but one of its decomposi- 
tion products (nitric oxide ?) which preserves the redness of the 
coloring matter of the muscle. Glage determined, furthermore, 
that in raw meat products, in addition to saltpeter and cane sugar, 
di-phosphate of soda, potash and borax have the effect of gradually 
producing a red color. 

Composition of Ordinary Brine. — Sixteen parts of salt are 
mixed with one-half part saltpeter and 1.5 to 2 parts of sugar. For 
each 100 kg. of meat, 5 kg. of this mixture is used, or 4,350 gm. of 
salt, 150 gin. of saltpeter and 500 gin. of sugar. The sugar is added 
to the meat on account of its marked action in preventing putrefac- 
tion (impoverishment of the nutrient medium for putrefactive 
bacteria). On the other hand, the addition of sugar may cause a 
slimy fermentation of the brine, which, however, is said to be with- 
out effect upon the character of the pickling material. 

Special Pickling Methods. — In America, the so-called dry 
pickled beef is prepared in the following manner : 

A 20 per cent, salt brine is prepared with the addition of salt- 
peter and sugar. The meat is thus pickled in a moist condition. 
Before it is shipped the meat is dried by means of special machines 
and is sprinkled with borax. The addition of borax is said to 
amount to from 1 to 2 per cent.f After the meat is sprinkled with 
l)orax, it is pressed by machine power. 



* " Stabil," which is recommended by the preservative manufacturer 
Adamczyk for the preservation of sausage for long keeping, contains 79 per cent, 
of saltpeter (Polenske). 

f According to an analysis made in Germany, the content of boric acid is 
much greater. Thus, in Dresden, 3.87 per cent, boric acid was demonstrated in 
American dry pickled beef. Amthor found in American beef 70.37 per cent, 
water and 7.61 per cent, mineral substances which consisted of 68.5 per cent, salt 
and 19.5 per cent, borax. In 51 samples of American dry pickled meat (partly 
pork and partly beef) Polenske demonstrated boric acid in every case. Nineteen 
samples contained from 1 to 2 per cent. ; 13, 2 to 3 per cent., and 1 sample, 3.36 



804 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

The Chicago firm of Nelson, Morris & Co. declares that it 
pickles meat only by means of a salt brine and that at least sixty 
days are occupied with the process. The meat is then allowed to 
hang eight to ten days more before it is ready for export. 

American pickled tongues are slightly salted, but, like the 
greater part of American dry pickled beef, contain the forbidden 
boric acid. The tongues are washed in water, thoroughly cleaned 
and dried. They are then rubbed with a mixture of 50 kg. coarse 
dry salt, 350 gm. of saltpeter and 750 gm. of borax, or with the 
same weight of boric acid, and placed in tight oak casks. Usually 
there is such an abundant production of brine that the subsequent 
addition of artificial brine is unnecessary. The casks are hermeti- 
cally sealed after three or four days. 

Demonstration of Pickling. — Probably under the erroneous 
supposition that any injurious properties which are contained in 
the meat are destroyed by the pickling process, the introduction 
of pickled meat was favored as compared with that of fresh meat. 
For this reason the distinction between pickled meat and fresh meat 
is of practical value. As shown by Glage, pickled meat has an 
alkaline reaction, tastes salty and is darker red and firmer than fresh 
meat and exhibits a lacquer-like cut surface, while the cut surface 
of fresh meat shows grooves and channels on account of the unequal 
retraction of the muscle fibers. For the certain detection of pick- 
ling, Glage recommends, in the place of the simple silver nitrate 
solution proposed by the author, a solution of silver nitrate partly 
.neutralized by ammonia and possessing the following composition : 

Argent, nitric, 2. 
Aqua destill., 100. 
Mf. sol. 

Adde exactissime 
Liquor. Ammonii caustic, q. s. 
ad praecipit. et perfect, resolut. 
Argent, nitr. ; deinde 

Liquor. Ammonii caustic, volumetric 40 cc. 
Aq. destill. q. s. ad 200 cc. 
M. D. in vitro flav. 

Sig. Reagent for the differentiation of salt and fresh meat ; 10 cc. for 
each. sample of 1 gm. 

The reagent is to be preserved in well-stoppered yellow glass 
bottles. For making the test, 10 gm. of the reagent is poured into 

per cent. The pieces of meat were surrounded by a gray layer 1 cm. thick. The 
inside of the beef possessed a deeper red color than fresh meat. The water con- 
tent of the dry pickled beef ranged between 65 and 69 per cent. 



SALTING AND PICKLING 805 

a glass bottle with a wide neck and a ground glass stopper. A 
piece of meat, as free from fat as possible, about the size of a nut 
(1 gm.) is taken from the interior of the piece of meat to be tested 
and thrown into the reagent. The piece of meat should not be 
comminuted. If one observes a white precipitation of chlorid of 
silver which by daylight rapidly becomes violet or black, but 
by lamplight slowly, or not at all, the meat has been pickled. 
Eresh meat produces only an albuminous cloudiness which does 
not become discolored. Fresh meat also retains its red color, 
while pickled meat becomes coated with chlorid of silver on the 
surface. 

Effect of Pickling on the Composition of the Meat. — As a 
result of pickling, meat suffers a loss of nutritive material. 
Polenske pickled meat in a solution of lg kg. salt, 15 gm. saltpeter, 
and 120 gm. of sugar in 6 kg. of water, and found that the weight of 
the pickled meat was considerably diminished as a result of the 
mutual exchange between the meat juice and brine. The maximum 
of increase of weight was observed within three weeks and 
amounted to 12 per cent, of the original weight. By the action of 
the brine, however, the following quantities of materials were 
extracted from the meat : 

Anhydrous 
Nitrogen Phosphoric acid 

Per cent. Per cent. 

After three weeks' pickling 7.77 34.72 

a** «.•» ■ 'i v S 10 - 08 J 54 -' 

After six months pickling t ....... „ -j i q r-g 1 54 ( 



.46 
.60 



Polenske was unable to demonstrate directly the loss of any 
potash salts. On the other hand, the high content of phosphoric 
acid in the brine showed that the potash salts had also been 
extracted to a large extent. 

According to an analysis of Voit, the nutritive value of meat 
appeared not to have been greatly diminished by pickling. This 
investigation, however, was made on meat which had been 
pickling only 14 days. At this time 1,000 gm. of fresh meat had 
absorbed 43 gm. of salt and had given up 79.9 gm: of water, 4.8 gm. 
organic materials, 2.4 gm. albumen, 2.5 gm. extractives and 0.4 gm. 
phosphoric, acid. Expressed in the form of a percentage, the loss 
amounted to 10.4 of water, 2.1 organic materials, 1.1 albumen, 13.5 
extractives and 8.5 of phosphoric acid. 

Experiments conducted by Nothwang, however, confirmed the 
result which had been obtained by Polenske. Nothwang found the 



806 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

extraction of phosphoric acid, and especially of extractives, to be so- 
considerable that pickled meat must be regarded as actually an 
inferior product. Nothwang demonstrated that pickling causes a 
greater' loss of material than mere salting. In pickling, 2.14 per 
cent, of the protein and 50.1 per cent, of the phosphoric acid was 
lost, while meat which had lain in salt for the same length of time — 
the maximum of extraction of materials was reached during the first 
two weeks — lost only 1.3 per cent, of the protein, 39 per cent, of the 
extractives and 33 per cent, of the phosphoric acid. 

Judgment of the Saltpeter Content of Pickled Meat. — 
Lehmann emphasizes the fact that saltpeter is a powerful poison 
for man. Five gm. may cause decided illness and 8 gtn. (more 
often 15 to 25 gm. are required) prove fatal. Nothing is known 
concerning saltpeter poisoning from the consumption of meat. 
The question of the hygienic judgment of saltpeter appears still to 
require a more thorough examination. 

Nothwang investigated the saltpeter content of various meat 
products and obtained the following data : Dry pickled meat 
products do not always contain saltpeter, but often contain only 
common salt. The greatest amount of saltpeter was found in red 
hams and the so-called country hams, but always in harmless quan- 
tities (0.197 to .328 per cent.). Even if an adult person should eat 
200 to 300 gm. of such meat, he would receive only 0.66 to .99 gm. — 
quite a harmless dose. 

The salt content of dry pickled meat products varies between 
3.42 per cent, (boiled hams), 5 per cent, (raw hams) and 8.7 per cent. 
(Kassel spare ribs). 

In a series of experiments it was found that meat pickled in 
brine absorbed a constantly increasing quantity of salt, while the salt- 
peter content became less after a short time (eight days). Nothwang 
ascribes this disappearance of the saltpeter, which, however, did 
not always occur, to reduction processes in the meat (formatior of 
nitrous acid). For the rest, the content of salt and saltpeter in 
meat is dependent, according to Nothwang, upon the concentration 
of the solution which is used, upon the length of the period of 
application, upon the transformation of saltpeter into ammonia, the 
pressure brought to bear upon the meat, and perhaps also upon the 
temperature and certainly upon the size of the pieces of meat which 
are subjected to the pickling process. 



SMOKING 807 



(b) Smoking. 



Different Methods of Smoking. — Since ancient times the pre- 
serving action of smoke has been utilized for increasing the keeping 
powers of meat and meat products (smoked meat). 

In practice, distinction is made between two kinds of smoking: 
slow and rapid or so-called hot smoking. The greater part of meat 
products is smoked slowly, that is, for days at a temperature of 
about 25° C. Certain products, however, like knackwurst, also all 
risk, are either exposed to smoke for several hours at a temperature 
of 70° C. and thereupon for a shorter time at a temperature of 
100° C. or more, or they are immediately exposed to smoke at a 
temperature of 100° C. Discontinuous smoking, in which the 
smoking process is maintained only during the day, is highly 
unsatisfactory. It is thus brought about, as shown by Senkpiehl, 
that in winter the pieces of meat are frozen during the night and 
thawed out again during the day, as a result of smoking. There 
can be no doubt that the process of decomposition is favored by the 
repeated freezing and thawing of the meat. 

Materials for Producing Smoke.— Only wood smoke is uti- 
lized for smoking meat. Juniper bushes, beech chips with juniper 
"berries, tanbark with mahogany chips and other, waste material 
from hard wood furnish very good smoke. Fir chips are not desir- 
able, since they unfavorably affect the taste of the smoked pro- 
ducts. 

Preservative Effect of Smoking. — The action of smoke con- 
sists in extracting water as a result of the high temperature of the 
smoke and in the influence of the disinfecting materials contained 
in the smoke ; for example, creosote, ernpyreumatic oils and car- 
bolic acid.* Serafini and Ungaro mention the higher tar-like sub- 
stances as active constituents of smoke. The effect of these sub- 
stances is increased by the disinfecting action of carbonic acid. 

Beu examined smoked products from the market, and animal 
food materials which he smoked. During this investigation it was 
found that among the meat products which are found on the market 
and which had been smoked slowly, bacon was the only one which 



* It thus appears that simple moistening of meat products with pyroligneous 
acid, which has been a common practice for many years, as a substitute for 
smoking, can not produce the preserving effect of smoke. 



808 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

was absolutely free from bacteria in its interior. Country mett- 
wurst exhibited some colonies of Micrococcus candicans. Hamburg 
smoked meat which had been pickled for from three to four weeks, 
then slowly smoked for five days, showed several colonies of white 
staphylococci. In a piece of the same meat products which had 
been smoked for three days, numerous bacteria were found, among 
which a species of proteus was observed. Fish smoked at a high 
temperature were either free from bacteria or showed but few colo- 
nies which did not liquefy gelatin. Numerous putrefactive bacteria, 
among them Proteus vulgaris, were found in the knackwurst which, 
had been smoked at a high temperature. 

The experiments which Beu instituted for determining the 
influence of a gradual smoking at a temperature of 22° to 25° C. 
yielded the following results : Pickled lean pork which before 
smoking contained large numbers of putrefactive bacteria was 
absolutely free from bacteria after a six-day period of smoking. 
Similarly, bacon became free from bacteria after subjection to 
smoke for seven days. A piece of unsalted pork, on the other 
Land, began to decompose in spite of smoking, and in knackwurst 
with which Beu experimented he was unable to observe any con- 
siderable effect upon the bacterial content despite long continued 
smoking. The marked influence of a previous extraction of water 
"by salting upon the preservative effect of the smoke thus becomes 
apparent. 

The disinfectant influence of smoke, whether by the slow or by 
the hot process, can not be denied. On the other hand, putrefac- 
tive bacteria are destroyed with difficulty or not at all in meat 
products which contain much water and which have not been 
previously dehydrated by pickling. 

Effect of Smoke Upon Pathogenic Bacteria. — Serafini and 
Ungaro demonstrated that smoke exercises a very energetic bacteri- 
cide action upon pure cultures of bacteria. The effect is observed 
in the case of the anthrax bacillus and staphylococcus after not 
more than 2.| hours ; in the case of the hay bacillus after 3| hours, 
and in the case of anthrax spores after 18 hours. Palozzi found 
that staphylococci, diphtheria bacilli and anthrax bacilli were 
killed in 1 hour and anthrax spores in 8 hours, and the tubercle 
Toacillus in 2 hours. In experiments with infected meat, however 
(pieces of guinea pigs infected with anthrax), Serafini and Ungaro 
found that the process of smoking did not appear to act so energeti- 
cally upon the bacteria contained in the meat as upon pure cul- 



PRESERVATION WITH BORIC ACID 809 

tures. Smoke penetrates with difficulty into the interior of the 
meat, chiefly for the reason that under the influence of the smok- 
ing process a layer of coagulated albumen is formed upon the sur- 
face of the pieces of meat. Serafini and Ungaro came to the con- 
clusion that smoking in and of itself had the effect of checking the 
growth of bacteria as a result of desiccation, but that it did not 
destroy the pathogenic bacteria which might be present in the 
meat. 

(c) Preservation -with Boric, Sulphurous and Salicylic 

Acids. 

Boric, sulphurous and salicylic acids exert a more decided 
influence in checking the growth of bacteria than does salt. It was, 
therefore, probable from the first that the keeping property of the 
meat could be considerably increased by means of these agents. 
Against the use of these chemical substances, however, it may be 
objected that they are not indifferent for the human organism, 
especially for the sick or convalescent, and that furthermore the 
consumer in buying meat and meat products assumes that foreign 
materials like boric, sulphurous and salicylic acids are not con- 
tained in those products.* 

1. — Boric Acid. 

Application. — Boric acid is used either alone as a powder and 
in an aqueous solution, or together with other preserving agents. 
In the powdered form boric acid is dusted upon the livers after a 
previous cutting into strips, and upon American dry pickled beef 
(page 803). Otherwise boric acid is used only in a fluid form, that 
is, in solution with water. Thus, in America, Denmark and Russia, 
the practice prevails to a large extent of injecting livers with a solu- 
tion of boric acid ("Hamburg" or "injected livers''). Boric acid 
is a good reagent for checking putrefaction. As shown by Petter- 
son, however, it does not completely prevent decomposition of 



* For this reason the Swiss Government has prohibited the use of chemical 
agents in preserving meat and meat products, with the exception of salt and 
saltpeter. Likewise, the German Federal Council has forbidden through a 
decree of February 16, 1902, which went into effect October 1, 1902, the use, for 
meat preserving purposes, of boric acid and its salts, formaldehyde, hydroxids 
and carbonates of alkalies and alkaline earths, sulphurous acids and their salts, 
as well as the salts of hyposulphurous acid, hydrofluoric acid and its salts, sali- 
cylic acid and its combinations, and, finally, the salts of hydrochloric acid. 



810 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

meat. Borax, on the other hand, is, according to Petterson, a very- 
effective agent in checking the growth of bacteria when used in 
combination with salt. 

Trade Preparations Which Contain Boric Acid. — According 
to Venzko and Schorer, the following preparations should be 
classed under this head : 

1-3. Saline salt II, Barmenit, and " strong -preserving salt,'* 
consisting of equal parts of salt and boric acid. 

4-5. Boroghjcin, Rolikramer 's preserving salt (95 per cent, boric 
acid and 5 per cent, sugar). " 

6. Eekhart's preserving salt (60 per cent, salt* 40 per cent, boric 
acid). 

7. Ziffers preserving powder (30 per cent, salt, 1,5 per cent. 
Glauber salts and 68.5 per cent, boric acid). 

8. Sanitat, a brine preserving fluid containing in each liter 45 
gin. boric acid, 8.5 gm. salt, 2.5 gm. ferrous gypsum and Glauber 
salts. 

9. Three-fold preserving salt (93.5 per cent, boric acid, 5 per 
cent, saltpeter and 1.5 per cent, salt and Glauber salts). 

10. Simple preserving salt (48 per cent, saltpeter, 50 per cent, 
boric acid, 1.5 salt, and 0.5 Glauber salts). 

11. Ziffer's preserving salt (30 per cent, boric acid, 35 per cent, 
saltpeter, 33 per cent, salt and 2 per cent. Glauber salt). 

12. Oppermann's cervelatwurst salt (77.5 per cent, salt, 13.5 per 
cent, saltpeter, 8.7 per cent, borates and 0.3 per cent, organic sub* 
stances). 

Furthermore, according to Polenske, the following should ba 
mentioned in this connection : 

13. DreseVs preserving or pickling salt (80 per cent, salt, 12 per 
cent, saltpeter, 8 per cent, borax). 

14. Preserving salt for covering and packing American hams 
after removal from the pickling water (84 per cent, borax, 3 percent, 
salt, 13 per cent, water). 

15. Stare's "sausage salt," Stares " conservator," Stare's "sani- 
tat," for pickling, containing as their chief constituent boric acid, 
(about 60 per cent.) and also saltpeter (12 to 14 per cent), cane 
sugar (4 to 8 per cent.) and sodium salicylate (7.6 per cent.). The- 
conservator, which Stare claims will keep meat dry and fresh, was, 
found to contain 32.3 per cent, borax and 42 per cent. salt. 

16. Stern's three-fold preserving salt (80 per cent, borax, 17 per 
cent, boric acid and 3 per cent. salt). 



PRESERVATION WITH BORIC ACID 811 

17. Delventlial and Kunzel's Berlinit, concentrated (7.46 per 
cent, salt, 9.8 per cent, boric acid, 45.75 per cent, borax, with 36.8 
per cent, water of crystallization). Berlinit for pickling (45.92 per 
cent, salt, 32.2 per cent, saltpeter, 19.16 per cent, boric acid, 2.28 
per cent, water). 

The following preservative agents also contain borax : viz., 
China preserving powder, Minerva (contains also sodinm sulphate), 
Ohrtmann's Australian salt, Magdeburg preserving salt, Heydrich & 
Co.'s preserving salt. 

Experience Concerning the Preservative Effect of Boric 
Acid. — According to a statement of Lehmann, a 1 per cent, solution 
of boric acid has the effect of keeping meat for four to seven days 
longer than normal. Schiff highly recommends the method of Her- 
zen, according to which crude boric acid is dissolved in water with 
the addition of borax and a little salt and saltpeter, and poured 
upon the meat. The meat is then said to retain a perfectly fresh 
appearance. Roosen recommends boric acid in combination with 
tartaric acid and salt (about 3 parts of the mixture to 97 parts of 
water) for the preservation of fresh meat, and especially of salt 
water fish. Roosen claims for his method that it extends the mar- 
ket for salt water fish in the interior. The fish keep very well in 
casks. When, however, the fish are removed from the casks, they 
keep but a few days in an undecomposed condition. 

Demonstration of Boric Acid in Meat. — According to Kam- 
merer, one may employ either the flame test or curcuma paper. 

For making the flame test, 10 gm. of the suspected meat are 
saturated with a soda solution and incinerated in a platinum or 
porcelain vessel. The incinerated mass is carefully neutralized with 
dilute sulphuric acid (1 : 10), 5 cc. of concentrated sulphuric acid, 
and 5 cc. of methyl alcohol are then added and the mixture is 
ignited. In the presence of boric acid, the flame exhibits the 
familiar emerald green color. 

Likewise, in making a test with curcuma paper, the mixture is 
neutralized with sulphuric acid and the curcuma paper is dipped 
into the solution. If boric acid is present, the curcuma paper 
exhibits a brown or red color after drying and then moisten- 
ing with water. If the paper is then sprinkled with 10 to 12 
per cent, potash lye, a green coloration appears if boric acid is 
present. 

The following method is prescribed, for demonstrating boric 



812 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

acid, by a decree of the Swiss Agricultural Department concerning 
the veterinary service along the frontier, December 5, 1898 : 

A piece of meat not smaller than a walnut, from which most of 
the fat has been removed, is finely minced and shaken up in a wide 
test tube together with 20 to 30 cc. of water and a few drops of 
hydrochloric acid. It is then heated to the boiling point, during 
which part of the boric acid which is present passes over into the 
solution. A strip of curcuma paper is then dipped into the solu- 
tion. If the paper appears red after drying in the air, borax was 
present in the sample of meat. 

Hafelin recommends the following method for the quantitative 
demonstration of boric acid in meat and sausages : 10 gm. of meat 
or sausage, as free as possible from fat, is finely minced and boiled 
for about one minute in a wide test tube together with a mixture of 
2 cc, glycerine, 4 cc. alcohol, 4 cc. of water and a few drops of 
hydrochloric acid (enough to give an acid reaction). The mixture 
is then filtered through a moist folded filter if fat is present. It is 
then tested with curcuma paper of known sensitiveness. The paper 
is dried by rapidly passing over the flame of a Bunsen burner. If 
boric acid is present, a cherry-red or brown color appears, which 
must persist when the paper is sprinkled with water, but which 
passes into a bluish black when sprinkled with ammonia. Hafelin 
calls attention to the fact that in case of the combinations mentioned 
by the Imperial Health Office, the flame reaction may lead to erro^ 
neous conclusions, since the CH 3 C1 or C 2 H 6 C1 which is formed 
under certain circumstances, burns with a green color. 

The Effect of Boric Acid on Man. — Liebreich is of the. 
opinion that fish treated with boric acid according to Roosen's 
method can not exercise any injurious effect upon health. It is 
maintained that man can consume two to four grams of boric acid 
daily without any bad consequences. However, fish preserved 
according to Roosen's method contain only two grams of boric acid 
per kilogram, three-fourths of which may pass over into the water 
in boiling. Accordingly, so small a quantity remains in the meat of 
the fish that no injurious effect need be feared from daily consump- 
tion of the material. 

In opposition to the assumption of Liebreich, Amthor showed 
that the quantities of borax demonstrated by him in American dry 
pickled meat (page 803) are not completely removed even by wash- 
ing in water for eighteen hours. Heinze obtained the same results. 
Pieces of American dry pickled meat containing 1.16 per cent. 



PRESERVATION WITH SULPHUROUS ACID 813 

"boric acid were -washed under tap water. They were then soaked 
in water for two and one-half to twelve hours and boiled for three 
and one-half hours. Heinze found that the meat was not com- 
pletely free from boric acid even after soaking for twelve hours, but 
still contained 0.93 per cent, of boric acid, while 0.28 per cent, was 
found in the bouillon. 

Emmerich considers the use of boric acid as a preservative as 
unallowable, since, according to his experiments, a dog was made 
very sick by eating two grams and a large rabbit was killed with 
four grams. On the basis of these experiments and other experi- 
ence, the Association of Bavarian Representatives of Applied Chem- 
istry declared that " the use of boric acid as an addition to foods and 
condiments is not an indifferent matter from a sanitary standpoint, 
according to the present knowledge of the subject." 

Likewise, the physiologist, Halliburton, and the sanitarian, 
Gruber, have argued against the admission of borax preparations 
and similar materials as preservatives. Moreover, Annett and Chit- 
tenden, as well as Gies, have experimentally demonstrated the 
harmful effect of borax and boric acid. Chittenden and Gies 
demonstrated that boric acid and borax produce indisposition and 
vomiting in experimental animals when the dose amounted to 1.5 to 
2 per cent, of the daily ration. 

In accordance with this view, the Swiss Government has for- 
bidden the importation of American dry pickled meat and has also 
issued the following decree of March 19, 1897, concerning the intro- 
duction and sale of meat : 

" The use of borax preparations, salicylic acid, formalin, combi- 
nations of sulphurous acid and other cjiemical agents for the preser- 
vation of meat and meat products, with the exception of salt and 
saltpeter, is forbidden for all meat intended for sale and subject to 
inspection." 

2.— Sulphurous Acid. 

Application. — For natural reasons, gaseous sulphurous acid is 
not used in the technique of meat preservation. On the other hand, 
the use of acid calcium sulphite and acid sodium and potassium 
sulphite is a common practice in the preservation of meat. As 
shown by Fischer in his Yearbooks, as much as 50 per cent, of the 
inspected samples of minced meat in Breslau have been treated 
with the salts of sulphurous acid. 



814 preservation of meat 

Trade Preparations Which Contain Sulphurous Acid or Its 
Salts. — Venzko and Schorer Lave demonstrated sulphurous acid or 
its salts in the following preservatives which are found on the 
market : 

1. Meat preserve, consisting of an aqueous solution of calcium 
sulphite. One liter of the fluid contains 68 grams sulphurous acid 
and 18.5 grams lime. 

2. Best Australian and New Zealand meat preserve (powder, con- 
sisting of sodium sulphite, 23 per cent.; salt, 40 per cent.; Glauber 
salt, 37 per cent.). The fluid which has been placed on the market 
under the same name consists of acid calcium sulphite (77 grams of 
sulphurous acid and 22.5 grams lime per liter). 

3. Royal Australian meat preserve, consisting of sodium sulphite, 
19 per cent.; Glauber salt, 79 per cent.; common salt, 2 per cent. 

4. Sozolith, consisting of 80 per cent. Glauber salt and 20 per 
cent, sodium sulphite. 

5. Double concentrated sodium sulphite (fluid), containing 254 
grams sodium bisulphite and 71 grams Glauber salt, per liter. 

6. Meat preserve crystal (powder), consisting of 53 per cent, 
sodium sulphite, 6 per cent, salt and 41 per cent. Glauber salt. 

7. Meat preserving crystal excelsior (powder), consisting of crys- 
talline sodium sulphite, 85 per cent., and Glauber salt, 15 per cent. 

8. Carnat (powder), consisting of 43 per cent, salt, 25 per cent, 
sodium sulphite, 27 per cent. Glauber salt, 5 per cent, sugar. 

9. Meat conserve fluid, containing 38.7 grams sulphurous acid 
and 16.2 grams lime per liter. It, accordingly, consists of bisul- 
phide acid calcium sulphite. 

According to analyses made by Polenske in the Imperial 
Health Office, the following preservatives also belong to this group: 

10. Odorless meat preserve fluid, consisting of 22 parts common 
salt, 73 parts Glauber salt, 171 parts sodium sulphite, 34 parts 
sulphurous acid and 0.15 parts vanillin per liter of water. 

11. Meat preserve powder, consisting of sodium hyposulphite, 
which is in large part oxidized to sodium sulphite. 

12. Newest meat preserve powder, consisting of sodium hyposul- 
phite, one-half of which is oxidized into sodium sulphate. 

13. Ghromosot, consisting of coloring material which does not 
belong to the analin dyes, and also sodium sulphite, sodium sul- 
phate and albumen. 

14. AdamczyJcs " Probat " (47.5 per cent, sodium sulphite, 
11 per cent, sodium sulphate, 10.5 per cent, common salt, 4.5 per 
cent, sugar). 



PRESERVATION WITH SULPHUROUS ACID 815 

15. Preserving salt of Langbein & Co. (80 per cent, crystallized 
sodium sulphite, 20 per cent, crystallized sodium sulphate, with a 
small percentage of soda). 

Finally, salts of sulphurous acid are contained in " treuenit," 
manufactured by the druggist Wolf inTreuen ; " Universal Preserv- 
ing Fluid," made by Druggists Volz and Oehme ; Stuttgart Conserve 
Salt, and in " German Meat Water." 

In an extensive series of analyses made in Nurnberg, 29 per 
cent, of the samples examined contained the salts of sulphurous 
acid, and in a similar test of samples in Dresden 52 per cent, con- 
tained these salts. 

Preservative Effect. — According to Baierlacher, sulphurous 
acid operates most vigorously on yeasts. It also prevents the for- 
mation of mold and delays the process of decomposition, without, 
however, preventing it entirely. Schmidt-Miilheim recommended 
calcium sulphite on the basis of his experiments for preserving raw 
minced meat. If from 30 to 40 cc. of a saturated solution is poured 
upon 10 kg. of minced raw beef, the penetrating odor of sulphurous 
acid rapidly disappears, for the reason that it is oxidized in the 
meat. It is claimed also that in boiling and roasting such meat, no 
odor of sulphurous acid is apparent. The keeping property of the 
meat is said to be greatly increased. After exposure to the air for 
a long time the meat possesses the appearance of a perfectly fresh 
color, and even after standing for days at a living temperature 
exhibits no evidence of decomposition. On the other hand, the 
development of molds was not prevented in all cases. 

These statements were subsequently found to be not strictly 
correct. It appears that sulphurous acid is a good preservative for 
the muscle pigment, but not for the meat itself. 

Detection of the Addition of Sulphurous Acid and its 
Salts. — Under a microscopic examination of meat which has been 
treated with sodium or calcium sulphite, the presence of Glauber 
salt or gypsum crystals becomes manifest in consequence of the 
partial oxidation of sulphurous acid in the meat. Kammerer 
recommends a method of demonstration by means of potassium 
iodate paper. 

Samples of meat are laid on potassium iodate paper and moist- 
ened with sulphuric acid free from nitric oxide (1 :8). In the pres- 
ence even of small quantities of sulphurous acid, a pronounced blue 
co^or immediately appears in the paper. If the meat has not been 



816 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

treated with, sulphurous acid, there is either none or only a slight 
bine color, and that not until some time after. The latter case 
occurs when the meat is not quite fresh. The color change which 
appears in such cases, however, can scarcely be mistaken for the 
instantaneous blue coloration caused by the presence of sulphites. 

Kammerer notes, furthermore, that many samples treated only 
with dilute sulphuric acid give off immediately the odor of sulphur- 
ous acid. 

Salted meat can not be tested with potassium iodate paper and 
sulphuric acid, since the hydrochloric acid which is set free after 
the addition of sulphuric acid is immediately decomposed in con- 
tact with the iodic acid. Similarly, meat products treated with 
saltpeter can not be tested according to the method of Kammerer, 
since in this case the nitrites immediately produce a pronounced 
blue color. 

Judgment op the Addition of Sulphurous Acid to Meat. — 
Since each pound of meat requires only one-fifth gram of sulphur- 
ous acid and one-fifteenth gram of lime, there can not exist, 
according to Schmidt, any possibility of an injurious effect from 
so slight an addition of calcium sulphite to meat. Nevertheless, 
the addition of " meat preserve " to minced or chipped meat 
should be forbidden ; for, in the first place, such an addition is 
not expected by the consumers. In buying minced meat in 
ordinary trade, it is assumed that it is pure meat without the 
addition of chemical agents. In the second place, the amount of 
the addition can not be controlled in individual cases, and, con- 
sequently, in a careless application it may occur that poisonous 
quantities of the preservative are added to the meat. In samples 
of minced meat, taken under police supervision, 0.5, .85, and 1A 
per cent, of the salts of sulphurous acid were frequently demon- 
strated, and in one case (Koln) as much as 2.24 per cent. In some 
cases Kammerer found minced meat thickly covered with preserv- 
ing salt, ostensibly for the purpose of keeping flies away from the 
meat. Moreover, even in the case of the addition of ordinary quan- 
tities, injurious amounts may be present in certain parts as a result 
of an unequal distribution. It is thus a fact of great importance 
that the salts of sulphurous acid do not commonly hinder the 
process of decomposition, but merely obscure it (compare the 
Observation of Mobius). It should also be remembered that the 
addition in question is calculated to deceive the buyer concerning 
the true character of the meat, for this addition gives inferior meat a 



PEESEKVATION WITH SULPHUROUS ACID 817 

better appearance, renders possible a fraudulent addition of water, 
and also makes it possible to sell old minced meat as fresh material. 
Moreover, it is not at all desirable that minced meat should be 
capable of preservation for a long time. Minced meat should be 
prepared only for immediate use, since, in contrast with meat which 
is not minced, it possesses a striking tendency to decomposition 
(compare "Minced Meat Poisoning"). 

Finally, attention should be called to the fact that the use of 
preservatives which contain sulphurous acid or its salts is not to 
the interest of tradesmen. For, according to Schorer, sulphurous 
acid frequently becomes changed into sulphuretted hydrogen and 
the meat thus acquires the familiar odor of rotten eggs and becomes 
absolutely unsaleable. 

According to a report of the Saxon District Veterinarian, 
Mobius, several persons, adults and children, -became ill after eat- 
ing minced meat sprinkled with meat preserve. The symptoms 
were loss of appetite, vomiting, internal pains and diarrhea. A 
microscopic examination of the minced meat in question showed 
that the transverse striation of the musculature was still retained. 
Bacteria, micrococci, triple phosphate and gypsum crystals were 
present. The presence of triple phosphate crystals, demonstrated 
by Mobius in the poisonous minced meat, shows that decomposition 
may take place in meat in spite of the preserving fluid. 

L. Pfeiffer, in Munich, collected the statements contained in 
literature concerning the toxic effect of sulphurous acid upon man 
(compare Lehmann). These statements varied greatly. Polli 
found 8 to 12 grams of the salts of the sulphurous acid to be harm- 
less for adults, and other authors found 1.8 grams per day of these 
salts to be without effect upon children, while, according to Ber- 
natzik and Braun, doses of even one gram magnesium sulphite with 
0.3 gram sulphurous acid were not well endured by women in child- 
birth (vomiting and diarrhea). On the other hand, one-third of 
these patients Who received 3.75 grams sodium sulphite (with 2.28 
grams S0 2 ) and two-thirds of those who received 3.75 grams potas- 
sium sulphite (with 1.98 grams S0 2 ), showed no bad effects of the 
treatment. The other women showed digestive disturbances. 

Kionka found that a young dog which during a period of five 
days had received 90 grams of the preserving salt of Heydrich 
<fe Co. died, and also that two other dogs which during a period of 44 
days had been fed 711 grams of the preserving salt together with 
meat did not increase in weight, despite the fact that their rations 
were large, but showed, temporarily, diarrhea and vomition. The 



818 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

dogs were killed and in both cases hemorrhages were found in the 
lungs and in one case an intensive hemorrhagic nephritis. Similar 
alterations were observed in two dogs which daring a period of about 
nine weeks received only as much preserving salt together with 
meat as should be added to the meat according to directions (12 
grams of the salt for each 5 kg. of meat). To be sure, the two 
last-mentioned experimental animals received very large quantities 
of meat daily (300 to 1,000 grams). The animals remained well 
during the experiment and increased considerably in weight. 

Kionka, on the basis of his experiments, came to the conclusion 
that the use of the salts of sulphurous acid as a preservative should 
be absolutely forbidden on account of their injurious properties. 
He condemns the procedure of the Chemist Bischoff, who gave an 
opinion to the effect that the preserving salts in question were not 
harmful to health when used in the quantities recommended. 

The Chemists Bischoff and Lebbin believed themselves justi- 
fied in advocating the addition of sulphites (not more than one or 
two grams per kilogram of meat), on the ground that such addition 
was harmless. Liebreich also declared in favor of admitting sul- 
phites as preservatives, since, according to his view, they did not 
cause any harm to the purchaser. 

The Imperial Health Office issued the following statement con- 
cerning the necessity alleged by butchers for the addition of sul- 
phites to minced meat and concerning their sanitary importance : 

1. By preserving proper cleanliness, minced meat may be prepared from 
freshly slaughtered meat, without the use of chemical preservatives, so success- 
fully that when preserved at a low temperature it will retain its normal color 
for more than twelve hours. 

2. The addition of sulphites and preservatives which contain such salts is 
calculated to improve the natural color of the meat, but not the meat itself, and 
to make the meat keep longer. The appearance of a better quality may thus be 
given to minced meat. 

3. The continued consumption of minced meat which has been treated with 
sulphites may injure human health, especially in the case of sick and weakly 
individuals. 

Among the materials which serve as a foundation for these 
propositions, the following statements are worthy of reproduction : 

"The consumption of minced meat which has been prepared 
with the aid of sulphites is by no means an indifferent matter from 
a sanitary standpoint. It is true that upon the wrappers of several 
of these preservatives opinions of experts are printed wherein cer- 
tain quantities of the preservatives are stated to be absolutely harm- 
less, and butchers on the basis of these opinions are accustomed to 



PRESERVATION WITH SALICYLIC ACID 819 

utilize sulphites without special care. They are not able to under- 
stand that these opinions concerning the harmlessness of the pre- 
servatives are given by chemists or men whose technical training 
lies in other fields than that of medicine and hygiene. 

" The preserving materials which contain sulphites possess a 
pronounced toxic effect, which consists of a local irritation of the 
gastric mucous membrane and in an injury to the blood system. 
The consumption of no more than 0.5 gm. of sodium sulphite is 
accompanied by a general indisposition and digestive disturbances. 
Smaller doses of the salt would probably be without effect upon 
healthy persons, but even if a certain small dose in the regular diet 
should be shown to be harmless for healthy individuals, we must 
still have some hesitation in admitting to the market minced meat 
treated with this quantity; for, as is well known, the use of minced 
and chipped meat is frequently recommended by physicians for sick 
and convalescing persons ; or, in other words, individuals whose 
digestive organs are in a weakened condition. For such individuals 
however, the consumption of meat treated even with a minute quan- 
tity of sulphites, is undoubtedly accompanied by bad consequences. 
In this connection, it should also be remembered that the distribu- 
tion of the preservative in the meat mass when carelessly applied 
may be irregular, so that comparatively large quantities may be 
found in certain parts of the meat." 

3.— Salicylic Acid. 

The power of salicylic acid in checking the development of bac- 
teria is well known. On account of its slight solubility in water and 
its disagreeable taste, however, salicylic acid is less adapted for use 
in the preservation of meat than, as emphasized by Lehmann, for 
alcoholic, strongly flavored substances, such as beer. Nevertheless, 
salicylic acid is used in the preservation of fish (salmon). 

Toxic Effect of Salicylic Acid. — Kolbe for a period of nine 
months took one gram of salicylic acid daily in various drinks with- 
out the slightest harm ; and Lehmann persuaded two Munich work- 
men to take one-half gram each of salicylic acid in one-half liter of 
beer for seventy-five and ninety-one days, respectively, without noting 
the slightest trace of an effect upon their condition. Toxic symp- 
toms were not observed until the dose reached five grams. The 
Paris Academy of Sciences, however, would not admit the addition 
of small doses of salicylic acid to food materials, since even smalL 



820 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

doses repeated daily for a long period produced disturbances of 
health in old individuals and in persons affected with cardiac and 
digestive troubles. 

Other Chemical Preservatives. — Under the name " salufer," 
a silicate of fluorin (fluorin sodium silicate) has been patented in 
England and is claimed to possess remarkable antizymotic proper- 
ties. A saturated solution containing 0.61 per cent, of this body 
has a greater antiseptic effect, according to Thomson, than a 1 per 
cent, aqueous solution of corrosive sublimate. Minced meat is said 
to remain in an undecom posed condition for a long period under 
the influence of this tasteless, odorless and non-poisonous body. 

Another method which has been patented in England consists 
of dipping meat in ammonium acetate and then allowing it to dry 
in the air. The meat is said to keep well when treated in this man- 
ner. Upon boiling or roasting, the ammonium acetate disappears 
completely and no trace of the preservative is noticed in eating the 
meat. 

Furthermore, potassium permanganate (under the name anti- 
grisein) has been recommended for preserving meat* 

Formalin (40 per cent, aqueous solution of formaldehyde) has 
recently been recommeded as possessing a considerable preserving 
power. Its use, however, is somewhat questionable, since aldehyde 
does not belong to the indifferent bodies. Against this view, held 
by Halliburton,* Fernbach and other well-known writers, "Windisch 
claims that the use of formaldehyde as a preservative is unobjection- 
able, for the reason that formaldehyde is also contained in smoke 
and is perhaps a more active constituent than creosote. Formalde- 
hyde can actually be demonstrated in the gases from wood fire. 
Windisch himself devised a preserving experiment during which he 
exposed fresh sausage for several consecutive days to fumes of for- 
maldehyde under a moderate temperature. The sausage smelled of 
smoke, dried very rapidly and had an excellent keeping quality. 
Strose constructed a ventilated preserving box in which, by means 
of the fumes of formaldehyde, meat could be easily preserved for from 
four to six weeks even in summer and under unfavorable weather 
conditions. Gottstein attempted to preserve meat with formalde- 
hyde by covering it with gelatin and then exposing it to the fumes 
of formalin for a few hours. This method, however, proved to be 






* According to Halliburton, the addition of 0.5 per cent, formalin stops 
gastric digestion absolutely and the addition of .05 per cent. delays it consider- 
ably. 



PRESERVATION BY HEAT 821 

impracticable, since, despite the short exposure to formalin, the 
meat, after lying for several months, shrunk and became as hard as 
stone. Likewise, an experiment of Ehrlich in preserving meat in 
an 8 per cent, formaldehyde solution failed. Horse meat when 
treated with an 8 per cent, formaldehyde solution took on an unap- 
petizing appearance and an odor of roast goose. Beef treated with 
formaldehyde emitted no disagreeable odor, but became inedible 
after a very short treatment. 

For other trade preservatives which carry high-sounding names 
for the purpose of concealing their simple composition, consult the 
investigations of Polenske in "Arbeiten aus dem Kaiserlichen 
Gesundheitsamte," Vols. 5, 6 and 8, and the investigations of Kam- 
merer in "Miinchener Forschungsberichte," Yol. 2. 

2. — Preservation by Heat. 

The bactericide effect of high temperatures can be successfully 
utilized in the preservation of meat intended for long keeping only 
when the meat which has been subjected to heat is packed in such a 
manner that subsequent infection is excluded. This condition is ful- 
filled in the preparation of so-called corned beef, the manufacture of 
which is conducted on the largest scale by American and Australian 
firms, in order to make possible the utilization of the great quanti- 
ties of meat from America and Australia in the markets of the world. 
Since the introduction of canned meat into Germany has been pro- 
hibited, it has been preserved on a commercial scale in this 
country. 

For preparing corned beef, the meat is comminuted, freed from 
bones and fatty tissue, placed in a large pickling vat, and after it 
has been thoroughly salted, is boiled in large receptacles. After 
boiling, the meat is spread out on large tables, salted and packed in 
cans, and under steam pressure is packed in boxes which are at 
once hermetically sealed. The sealed cans are placed in boiling 
water for from three to six hours, according to their size, and are 
punctured while still hot in order to allow the escape of air or 
superfluous fat. The hole is then immediately closed by soldering, 
in order to allow the cans to be placed again for a few hours in 
boiling water. 

Recently, mutton and pork have been preserved by the same 
method used in preparing corned beef and sold under the names 
" corned mutton " and " corned brown." 



822 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

General Judgment op Canned Meat. — In canned meats we 
have to do with meat products in which the destruction of patho- 
genic organisms, which may be present in the meat, may be accom- 
plished by means of the preserving method adopted. It is true that 
in the case of canned meat there can never be any certainty that the 
animals from which the meat was obtained were healthy. From 
recent reports from America, it appears that the " canners " — that is, 
animals which are worked up in the preparation of canned meat — 
belong to the poorest quality and are frequently diseased (Kiihnau). 
Furthermore, from American reports concerning the extensive out- 
breaks of disease among American troops in Cuba, as a result of 
eating canned meat, it appears that in America, the chief exporting 
country of canned meat, this material is not always harmless, as pre- 
pared. The cause of the harmful property of the meat in question 
can not be determined from the reports. With regard to foreign 
canned meat, however, it should always be remembered that we are 
dealing with products the method of preparation of which is known 
in general, but can not be controlled in individual cases. In the 
finished product it can be determined whether the material was so 
well boiled before the closure of the cans that pathogenic organisms 
in the meat must have been destroyed. On the other hand, there is 
no means of determining whether chemical substances are present 
in the canned meat which are not at all or with difficulty destroyed 
by heat. The unfortunate experience which was had in feeding 
American troops on canned meat compels us to assume that harm- 
ful properties may be present in canned meat not only as a result of 
defective boiling, but also as a result of the utilization of defective 
material ; for example, material already in process of decomposi- 
tion. For this reason, according to the present status of the ques- 
tion, canned meat must be classed along with sausage with regard 
to its sanitary judgment, and must be treated in the same manner. 

Injurious Canned Meat.— It is to be assumed that canned meat 
possesses harmful properties if the cans are swelled or soldered 
twice.* Likewise, it is to be assumed that the meat is harmful if 
the gelatin which surrounds the meat does not exhibit a firm char- 
acter, but possesses a disagreable odor of putrefaction. The pres- 
ence of gas in the can and the liquefaction of the gelatin indicate 

* According to a circular letter of the Royal Prussian Ministries of Medical 
Affairs, Commerce and Interior, no violation of the law of June 25, 1887, con- 
cerning traffic in substances containing lead and zinc is found in traffic in. 
conserve cans which are soldered with material containing lead. 



PRESERVATION BY HEAT 823 

putrefactive processes in the meat and an injurious character 
(page 756). 

Dried Meat. — In South America, South Russia, Roumania and 
other countries, meat is preserved by drying in the air. For this 
purpose it is cut into narrow strips. Before being eaten the strips 
are softened in water. The Kalmucks dry meat by cutting it into 
small strips and dry it in the air or over a small smoking fire. The 
process of drying is of great importance in the preservation of fish. 
In South America meat is either dried after a previous salting 
(" tasajo," " charque," jerked beef) or dried beef is prepared with- 
out salt (" charque dulce "). Tasajo is quite an important'article of 
trade. In the Saladeros of the La Plata States and in the Brazilian 
province Rio Grande, the meat of nearly 1,500,000 cattle is annually 
worked up into this product. The chief consumption of tasajo 
occurs in Brazil, Rio de Janiero, Cuba and the Antilles. In Brazil, 
tasajo is cut into pieces and cooked together with black beans to 
make the national dish '•feijaoada." The exportation of this 
material to Spain, Portugal and Italy has thus far met with failure 
on account of the rancid taste of the dishes prepared with tasajo 
(Knuth). 

K Carne Pura."— The attempt to introduce South American 
and Australian meat in powdered form — " carne pura " — has thus 
far met with but little success on account of the high prices of the 
preparation and the pungent odor which at first inheres in the meat 
powder. Carne pura is prepared by drying raw meat at a tempera- 
ture of 40° C. The albumen thereby remains soluble (Hoffmann). 

Meat Extract. — The preparation of meat extract was the first 
and most decidedly successful attempt to make the great meat 
product of America utilizable in the Old World. Previously, mil- 
lions of sheep and cattle had been slaughtered merely for the wool, 
hides and bones. For obtaining meat extract, the meat is cut in 
machines and digested under high pressure. The meat broth thus 
obtained is passed into fat separators and thence into clarifying 
kettles, in which the albumen, fibrin and magnesium phosphate are 
separated. Hereupon the extracted mass is placed in an evaporat- 
ing apparatus, from which it is draAvn off by various filtering pro- 
cesses into large receptacles intended for shipping. The distribu- 
tion of the extract into small cans suitable for retail trade takes 
place at the import towns. 



824 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

The oldest meat extract factory (Liebig's meat extract) is in 
Fray-Ben tos in Uruguay. This factory utilizes 400 to 500 cattle 
daily, producing therefrom about 1,500 kg. of extract. 

Liebig's meat extract possesses the consistency of a soft extract 
or a thick salve. It has an acid reaction, is hygroscopic, and readily 
dissolves in water. The meat extract frequently contains granular 
material (creatin and potassium phosphate). The color, odor and 
taste vary according to the nge and sex of the animals used in pre- 
paring the extract. According to Liebig, the meat of steers 
furnishes an extract of darker color and possesses a taste which, in 
the concentrated extract, resembles that of game, but is agreeable 
in dilute solution. The extract from the meat of cows is of a milder 
taste, lighter color and is considered better by many individuals. 
The meat of animals under four years of age is not suitable for the 
preparation of extract, for extract thus prepared is like pap and has 
the insipid taste of veal. Since the separation of cows and steers is 
not possible, the color and taste vary according as the meat of 
steers or cows predominates in the daily output.* 

Recently, fluid extracts (Maggi, Cibils, Kemmerich and Koch) 
have also been placed on the market. 

Nutritive Value op Meat Extract. — Meat extract is merely 
a condiment and possesses no nutritive value (Rubner). Frentzel, 
in cooperation with Toriyama, found that in dogs fed chiefly on fat 
and starch, a quantity of nitrogen corresponding to 60 per cent, of 
the extractives of the meat extract, remained in the body. These 
authors, however, were unable to decide whether the nitrogen was 
utilized as a reserve material or whether the meat extract, like gel- 
atin, operated only in protecting protein. 

3.— Preservation by Cold. 

Value op Preservation by Cold. — Cold is unquestionably the 
best method of preserving meat. It causes no alteration in the meat 
either with regard to taste or nutritive value. On the other hand, 
it improves the quality of the meat considerably. Under the pro- 
longed action of sarcolactic acid, meat acquires an unusually tender, 



* With regard to horse meat, Liebig says the meat broth from horse meat, 
•when steamed, forms membranes over the surface, like that of milk, which are 
renewed as often as removed. Moreover, the extract is thick and slimy, does not 
dissolve perfectly in water and always tastes of fat. 



PRESERVATION BY COLD 825 

soft character, the true table maturity required by pampered pal- 
ates. No hygienic scruples, as in the case of the utilization of 
chemical materials, can be entertained with regard to the rational 
application of cold, and, finally, the effectiveness of cold, as a preser- 
vative for meat, is almost unlimited. As a sample of the 
incomparable preserving power of cold, we may mention the fact 
that the Jakutes still feed their dogs on the meat of mammoths 
which have remained for thousands of years in the ice of the Lena. 

Effect of Low Temperatures on Putrefactive Bacteria. — 
It must be considered as a demonstrated fact that low temperatures 
can not destroy the organisms of putrefaction. Pictet and Joung 
had perfectly negative results in exposing anthrax bacilli, Bacillus 
subtilis, and other bacteria in wooden boxes for twenty hours to a 
temperature of — 70° C, then surrounding them with liquid carbonic 
acid at a temperature of — 70° to —76° C, and, finally, exposing them 
for another twenty hours to a temperature of — 76° to — 130° C. by 
evaporation of liquid carbonic acid. Colemann and Mikendrick 
likewise failed to destroy bacteria in their experiment concerning 
the effect of cold on decomposable substances. They placed meat 
in hermetically sealed or at least bacteria-proof vessels (by the use 
of cotton plugs) in a chamber with a temperature of — 56° to — 63° C. 
for a period of at least six hours. After the meat was brought into 
a warm room, slight decomposition took place after ten to twelve 
hours and complete putrefaction after a few days. 

From these and other experiments it appears that bacteria, 
especially putrefactive bacteria, possess a quite unusual resisting 
power against low temperatures. This resistance does not in any 
way militate against the preservative effect of cold. While it is not 
possible to destroy putrefactive bacteria by cold, we may still pre- 
vent their multiplication by means of low temperatures and may 
lieep them in a dormant condition and prevent the development of 
their proteolytic power. 

Pathogenic bacteria are as little affected by low temperatures 
as putrefactive bacteria. Their virulence persists unattenuated 
despite the long exposure to excessive cold. 

Havemann investigated a large number of non-pathogenic and 
pathogenic bacteria with regard to their powers of growth at low 
temperatures and found that numerous micro-organisms, including 
molds, yeasts and bacteria, thrive on meat, milk and gelatin at a 
temperature of 7° C, such as usually prevails in good cellars and 
ice chests. At this temperature the growth of the majority of 



826 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

organisms was only slightly checked, so that the colonies did 
not become visible to the naked eye until after five to seven 
days. Growth was completely prevented only in the case of 
the cholera bacillus, typhoid bacillus and the cocci of erysipe- 
las. The vitality of these micro-organisms, however, was not 
destroyed by exposure for several weeks to the temperature above 
mentioned. 

Freezing and Simple Cooling op Meat. — There are two ways 
of preserving meat by means of low temperatures, namely, freez- 
ing and preservation at a temperature somewhat above 0° C. 

Meat may be kept indefinitely by freezing. Frozen meat, how- 
ever, possesses the disadvantage that in thawing out, water vapor 
and putrefactive bacteria may be deposited upon the surface of the 
meat and thereby greatly affect its keeping property. In trans- 
oceanic traffic in meat and in provisioning garrisons, however, on 
account of the length of time during which the meat must be pre- 
served, freezing can not be dispensed with, despite the disadvan- 
tages of this process. Meat-transporting steamers ply between 
Australia and England, carrying freezing rooms in which the meat 
of 4,000 cattle, 14,000 sheep and a large number of rabbits may be 
stored (Heiss). 

Frozen Meat as an Army Supply. — The French Ministry of 
War instituted experiments to determine whether frozen meat 
could be used as an army supply. These experiments showed that 
frozen meat may be preserved as long as eight months without 
any alteration of its original character. Great difficulties, however,, 
were encountered in transporting meat to the point of consump- 
tion. Frozen meat when surrounded by peat dust endures a rail- 
road journey of four days even at a high external temperature. 
On the other hand, transportation by wagon operates unfavorably 
on the keeping property of the meat. For this reason it was. 
decided to furnish only garrisons with frozen meat. It is stated 
that in times of peace large freezing rooms have been constructed 
in which hundreds of thousands of kilos of meat may be kept or 
used periodically and replaced. 

Grassmann reports concerning investigations which were made 
with the meat of two steers, three hogs and three sheep, in the 
military freezing establishment at Thorn. The objects of these 
experiments were to determine the time required for the thorough 
freezing of slaughtered meat when hung up in the freezing room. 



PRESERVATION BY COLE 827 

the length of time that frozen meat will keep, and whether any 
alterations occur in the meat during its preservation. 

Steers were quartered, hogs halved and sheep left whole. The 
meat was placed in the freezing establishment on November 27. 
On November 28 the temperature in all the kinds of meat had 
sunk below 0° C, and remained at about — 4° C. until August of the 
following year. Mutton was frozen first and beef most slowly. 
The following alterations were demonstrated in the meat: In 
February, the beef acquired a darkish surface and the pork a gray 
external surface. At a depth of 1 to 1| mm. under the surface, 
however, the meat was juicy and of a bright red color. More- 
over, a grayish-white deposit (excreted meat salts) was observed 
over the surface of all the meat. In March, mold fungi appeared , 
on the beef, but they were readily removed by rubbing the meat 
and improving the ventilation. 

In August, when the meat was taken from the freezing rooms 
and distributed among the troops, it was found that it not only 
cooked well, but that it possessed a good flavor and could not be 
distinguished from fresh meat. It required only half as much time 
as fresh meat in cooking, furnished a good broth, and proved to be 
especially tender and juicy in a roasted condition. 

After four months the meat had lost in weight as a result of 
evaporation of the water to the extent of 8.8 per cent, (beef), 7.4. 
per cent, (pork), and 11.5 per cent, (mutton) ; and after nine months 
the meat had decreased in weight 17.8 per cent, (beef), 12.8 per cent- 
(pork), and 23.4 per cent, (mutton). Grassmann also observed that 
in thawing out considerable meat juice escaped from the meat, 
and this is ascribed to the fact that the cell walls may have been 
ruptured. No other unfavorable alterations or decrease in nutri- 
tive value took place in the frozen meat. 

In the freezing rooms of the Hamburg Cold Storage Plant,, 
experiments with frozen meat have given satisfactory results. The 
same may be said for the freezing rooms intended for the preserva- 
tion of fish, game, fowls, eggs and milk (Kiihnau). 

As stated by Hofmann, freezing is not adapted to inland trade 
on account of the disadvantages above mentioned. For this trade 
the only rational method of preserving meat is to keep it at 3° to 
5° C. in rooms with an average moisture content of 70 to 75 per 
cent. Under such conditions, hoAvever, the low temperature alone 
is not sufficient to prevent all decomposition of the meat. Putre- 
factive organisms may become located on the meat and may exhibit 
a slight growth even at the lower temperature. In order to destroy 



S28 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

the conditions for the undesirable multiplication of these organisms, 
it is necessary to dry the surface of the meat and to maintain it in 
a dry condition. On dry surfaces — and in slaughtered auimals 
decomposition regularly begins on the surface (page 753) — all vital 
activity of putrefactive bacteria ceases under low external tempera- 
tures. The aim of architects and engineers should, therefore, be 
directed to devising cold storage establishments which produce not 
only cold, but dry air. Even under these conditions, the meat 
remains undecomposed for only a few weeks. This, however, is 
quite sufficient for the demands of the meat traffic. 

Sources of Cold. — For producing lower temperatures we have 
several artificial means at our command, the simplest of which is 
in the form of natural or artificial ice, and the more complicated 
forms are found in ingeniously constructed cold air and cold vapor 
machines. The latter alone satisfy all the requirements of hygiene 
and the technique of preservation, and should, therefore, be intro- 
duced as extensively as possible. Cooling by means of ice is 
adapted only for household purposes, for retail dealers in large 
cities, and also for slaughterhouses in small cities, on account of 
Its simplicity and cheapness. In such slaughterhouses the cost of 
cooling machines would be out of all proportion to the advantages 
derived. 

(a) Refrigeration by Means of Ice. 

The most primitive form of the application of cold consists in 
simply laying materials to be preserved upon the ice. This is also 
the poorest form, since the materials to be preserved are cooled only 
on one side, rather than on all sides, and, instead of being dry, they 
are artificially moistened as a result of the melting of the ice. More- 
over, in the use of natural ice, there is the danger of the transmis- 
sion from the ice to the meat of pathogenic bacteria the viability of 
"which has not been destroyed by freezing. The Royal Government 
President at Potsdam issued a public warning against the careless 
use of natural ice, in which the following statements were con- 
tained : 

" As a result of investigations in the Imperial Health Office, it 
'was determined that the ice used in Berlin for domestic purposes, 
even when of good external appearance, often contains numerous 
dangerous micro-organisms quite capable of development. It is 
probable, therefore, that the diseases observed after the ingestion 



PRESERVATION BY COLD 82$ 

of drinks which have been cooled by throwing in pieces of ice are 
not so much due to the coldness of the drink as to the pathogenic 
organisms which are present in the ice. The same danger may arise 
in the case of solid food materials which have been cooled by lying 
on such ice." 

A better method of cooling by means of ice is found in the vari- 
ous devices in which the ice does not come into immediate contact 
with the materials to be preserved, but is separated from them by 
a division wall. The meat is thereby not cooled directly, but indi- 
rectly, by the surrounding air, and a moistening of the food materials 
by melting ice is avoided. We possess such devices on a small 
scale in ice chests, also on a large scale in cold storage plants in 
which natural ice is used. The ice is placed between two double 
walls on the side or in the middle of the cooling room. In the- 
so-called Brainard system, the ice is placed upon the ceiling of the 
preserving room upon a corrugated metal sheet. 

The following statements concerning cooling plants in whicb 
natural ice is used are taken from a description by Wittenbriuk. 
The plant consists essentially of three rooms — an ice room, cooling; 
room, an antechamber ; the latter connects the outside world 
immediately with the cooling room. The cooling room and ice room 
are separated from each other by a division wall. The ice room 
lies higher than the cooling room. The cold air passes from the 
ice room into the cooling room through slits which may be opened 
or closed, as required. The cold air immediately descends to the 
floor, removing the heat and moisture from the meat, which hangs 
at about the height of a man, and again rises and escapes through 
a chimney or ventilator in the ceiling. The ventilation of the room 
is, therefore, excellent, and the inner surface of the wall, as well as 
the external surface of the meat, are said to be dry at all times. 
The plant is opened for business only twice daily, one hour in the 
morning and evening. The ice in the ice room keeps even through 
the hottest summers until winter. 

Wittenbrink adds to his description the statement that the city 
of Waldenburg with 14,000 inhabitants has possessed a cooling, 
plant of this sort for three years. It is said that this plant, as well 
as similar cold storage plants in Landeshut and Myslowitz, have- 
proved perfectly satisfactory to the tradesmen. The meat keeps per- 
fectly fresh for several weeks and the plant possesses the advantages 
of great simplicity and extraordinary cheapness of operation. 

The so-called Brainard system, according to which the cold 
storage plant of the abattoir in Budapest is constructed, is intended 



830 PKESERVATION OF MEAT 

to produce the greatest possible dryness of air by stacking the ice 
upon a corrugated metal sheet over the cooling room. The use of 
corrugated metal furnishes a large surface for condensation on 
which the water may be precipitated and readily conducted away 
in the grooves. 

Value of Cold Storage Plants with Natural Ice. — Accord- 
ing to preseut experience, cold storage houses in which natural ice 
is used can not compare with artificial cold storage plants with 
regard to the certainty of effectiveness. Consequently they are 
generally too expensive, despite their apparent economy. The 
greater original cost of artificial cold storage plants is more than 
offset by the certainty of the preservation of the meat. Cold storage 
liouses using natural ice in connection with abattoirs can be con- 
sidered only as makeshifts. Various cold storage plants in which 
natural ice is used, as, for example, those in Schmiegel, have 
already been replaced by artificial cold storage establishments. 

Refrigerator Cars. — Ice is used almost exclusively for cooling 
refrigerator cars intended for transporting meat by rail. In this 
«ase the disadvantages of the system are not so strongly felt as in 
stationary establishments, since the revolution of the wheels fur- 
nishes a driving power which can be readily utilized for ventilating 
ihe interior of the cars. 

Various systems are in use, especially the system of Stras- 
chiripka and Tiffany, the system of Anderson, Zimmermann and 
Acclom, in which the air is drawn in through the ice from the out- 
side, and the systems of Jaschka, Wickes and Schreiber, in which, 
"by means of ventilators in the hermetically closed room, the air is 
kept in constant circulation between the ice room and the cooling 
room. 

Schreiber's refrigerator cars are 7 meters long, 2 meters high 
and 2.33 meters wide. The double floor is provided with a layer of 
sawdust. The side walls consist of three layers of boards and the 
two inner walls are separated from each other by cattle hair and 
are coated with waterproof paste. The whole space is surrounded 
with a thick layer of felt which is held in place by a layer of gal- 
vanized iron which constitutes the inner wall of the space. The 
meat is hung on longitudinal bars in such a manner that the pieces 
do not quite come in contact with each other. Each car is provided 
with an ice chest with a capacity of 18 centners, which is said to be 
sufficient for a period of from eight to ten days. Schreiber states 



PRESERVATION BY COLD 



831 



that it is possible to pack 200 centners of meat in such cars. The 
construction of Schreiber's cars is otherwise very much like that of 
the cars which have been introduced by Wickes. In Wickes' cars, 
a larger amount of ice is required (30 to 35 centners in summer for 



Fig. 254. 




Wickes' refrigerator car. 



five days). The following statements are taken from a description 
of Wickes' ice car : 

Through a suction wall which is placed at one end of the car, 
the inner air of the car is drawn into a suction force fan and pressed 



Fig. 255. 




Refrigerating apparatus for transport cars according to Trapp. 

A axle; B, belt; C, driving pulley; D, ventilator; E, receptacle for calcium 

chlorid; F, air shaft; G, ice chest. 



into the air distributing apparatus of the ice chest through a wooden 
tube which lies beneath the floor of the car. The air passes from 
the distributing apparatus into the ice chest, which contains 45 
centners of ice. From the ice chest it passes through a series of 



832 PKESERVATION OF MEAT 

openings into the cooling room, from the opposite end of which it is 
again drawn into the suction funnel near the ceiling of the car after 
it has come in contact with all parts of the room. The fan is driven. 
by power obtained from a friction wheel on the axle of the car. 

Wickes' cars are used almost exclusively in America. In 1877, 
twelve of these cars were introduced into Austria and also proved 
satisfactory there. The abattoir veterinarian, Trapp, in Strasburg, 
has patented a new cold storage apparatus for transport cars. 
According to his plan, the ice chest is placed in the middle of the 
car, the air is drawn down over the ice by suction, but before enter- 
ing the cooling room is dried by chlorid of lime. The current of 
air is maintained by a ventilator which is driven by a leather disk 
wheel on the axle of the car. While the car is in motion, the air is 
constantly drawn down from above by the ventilator and forced 
through the chest containing chlorid of lime, in which it gives up 
its water. Before the air enters the cooling rooms it must pass by 
the ice chest and thus it becomes cool and gives up its water. The 
air after having been thus cooled and dried passes down through 
the ventilator and is then distributed into the car space, where it 
forces the air, which has already become moister and warmer, to 
assume the same direction. Trapp asserts that any good freight 
car is adapted to the utilization of his cooling and drying apparatus, 
which may be improvised at any time. 

(b) Cold Storage Establishments With Mechanical 
Refrigerating Apparatus. 

It is not within the scope of a handbook on meat inspection to 
describe details of the various machinery which has been utilized 
in the production of artificial cold. These matters are of special 
interest to the technician and builder.* The most essential point 
for the sanitarian is to learn the principles upon which these 
artificial devices are based. With regard to the present status of 
the technique in the field of artificial cold storage plants, " which at 
the present time have assumed a great and unexpected importance 



*On this subject, consult Lorenz, Neuere Kuhlmaschiuen, 3d ed., Munich 
and Leipsic, 1901 ; also Stetefeld, Die Verwendung von Ki'ihlemnaschinen, Ber- 
lin, 1901. With regard to the operation of the machines, consult Schwartz, 
Maschinenkunde fur den Schlachthofbetrieb, Berlin, 1901. 

See also A. J. Taylor, Refrigeration, Cold Storage, etc., 1902; U. Selfi, Machin- 
ery for Refrigeration, 1900; andH. R. Leask, Refrigerating Machinery, etc., 1901. 
— Translator. 



PEESERVATION BY COLD 833 

such as few other fields of technique have to show," the following 
account is taken from a lecture of Schulze, who discussed the matter 
in a general way from a technical standpoint, but who referred for 
more accurate information to the writings and investigations of 
Linde, Zeuner, Pictet and Schwarz. 

For the purpose of cooling meat, two cold producing machines 
have been most extensively utilized : 

1. The cold air or air expansion machines. These machines are 
based on a law of physics that compressed air becomes considerably 
colder by expansion. Thus, for example, air of 2, 3 and 4 atmos- 
pheric pressure and of a temperature of 30° C. assumes temperatures 
of —25°, —53° and —70° C. upon expanding. 

2. Gold vapor or compression machines. These machines utilize 
vaporizing substances, such as sulphurous ether, methyl ether, sul- 
phurous acid and carbonic acid, but chiefly ammonia. They are 
based on the law that fluids extract heat from surrounding sub- 
stances upon vaporizing. The vaporizing substances are kept in 
permanent circulation in a closed system of tubes. The fluid after 
being vaporized is again brought back in a fluid form and the 
latent heat thus freed is absorbed by water of ordinary tempera- 
ture. 

The technique of the production of cold in the vaporizing 
machines is described by Schultze in the following manner : 

Fluid ammonia is forced under high pressure into a system of 
wrought iron coiled tubes, the so-called vaporizer. It is here vapor- 
ized under low pressure and thereby absorbs the latent heat neces- 
sary for vaporization from the surrounding material, air, or a fluid 
(salt water or chloricl of lime water). The latter is thereby greatly 
cooled. From the system of tubes in the vaporizer the gaseous 
ammonia is then drawn into a peculiarly-shaped suction and force 
pump, the so-called compressor. Here it is changed under pres- 
sure into a fluid condition and is then forced into a second system 
of coiled tubes, the condenser, in which the heat which has been 
developed is carried away by flowing water. 

The fluid ammonia is again conducted through a connecting 
tube to the vaporizer and the cycle of changes begins anew. 
According to Edelmann, the ammonia and carbonic acid machines 
have proved satisfactory in Germany. However, they are not so 
certain in operation as the machines which utilize sulphurous acid, 
since they operate under a high pressure (10 to 14 and 60 to 70 
atmospheres), while the pressure in the sulphurous acid machines 
amounts to only 2 or 3 atmospheres. Moreover, the latter machines 



834 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

require no special oiling, since sulphurous acid, on account of its 
oily nature, furnishes sufficient lubrication for the compressors. 
The first sulphurous acid machines were those of Pictet. Their 
only disadvantage is that they require from 20 to 60 per cent, more 
energy than the ammonia compression machines of Linde for the 
production of the same degree of cold, according to the various 
temperatures of the cooling fluid. 

Cold Air Machines. 

The Bell-Coleman machine is the only one which operates 
according to the system of cold air machines. Air is drawn out of 
the cooling room and subjected to a pressure of 2| to 3^ atmos- 
pheres in the compression cylinder. The air is thus greatly heated 
and must be cooled by injecting water. In order to dry the air 
again it must be passed through numerous sieve-like structures. 
The compressed air is cooled to a temperature of 5° C. in a system 
of tubes connected with the expansion cylinders. The air escapes 
into the cooling room from the expansion cylinders at a tempera- 
ture of — 40° to — 50° C. through open systems of tubes furnished 
with ventilating holes. The Bell-Coleman cold air system has been 
but little used in cold storage plants in Germany. On the other 
hand, it is extensively utilized on meat transport ships. 

Cold Vapor Machines. 

Two groups of these devices may be distinguished, according to 
the method of using the cold which is produced by the vaporizing 
machines. 

a. In the first group the cold is transmitted to solutions of salt 
or chlorid of lime, which are conducted through systems of tubes 
into the cooling room and thus cool the air in this room. 

b. The second group cools the air directly in the coiled tubes of 
the vaporizer and conducts the cooled air into the cooling room. 

In the vaporizing machines with the circulating salt solution, 
the latter, when cooled to a temperature of — 8° to — 10° C, is 
pumped into a system of iron tubes consisting of numerous coils 
close together and located under the ceiling of the room which is 
to be cooled. After the cooling effect of the salt solution has been 
utilized, the solution flows back to the vaporizer and there begins 
anew its circulation. 

The cold salt water effects not only the cooling, but also a dry- 
ing of the air of the room in so far as the moisture in this air is pre- 



PRESERVATION BY COLD 835 

cipitated on the cold coils in the form of rime and ice. Cooling rooms 
constructed on this plan have been established in connection with a 
number of abattoirs. The great disadvantage attached to this system 
is that the rime and ice precipitated on the cold tubes forms a poor 
conductor of heat, and, therefore, hinders the cooling action of the 
salt solution, or entirely overcomes it. It then becomes necessary to 
interrupt the circulation of the salt solution and to allow the tubes 
to thaw out. 

This difficulty is overcome by the devices classed in group b. 
According to this system, the agent which serves for transmitting 
the cold is entirely outside of the cooling room. The air is cooled 
and dried outside of the cooling room in special apparatus separated 
from each other and is then forced into the cooling room by means 
of ventilators. The great advantage of such an arrangement is quite 
apparent. In the first place, water which is formed by thawing and 
the bacteria which gain entrance to the cooling apparatus are carried 
outside of the cooling room and disposed of. 

The cold storage systems of Pictet, Osenbriick and Linde 
operate according to these principles. 

In the "rain-cooling" system recommended by Pictet, the salt 
solution falls free into a special vessel above the cooling room in 
the form of fine rain, through which the air which is to be cooled is 
driven. The cooled air is conducted through shafts in the wall 
from the vessel above the room in which the meat is preserved, 
while the warm air rises under the ceiling in the cooler. The salt 
water after being used is again conducted to the vaporizer. Schultze 
characterizes this device as very expensive. 

In Osenbriick's system, the salt solution which has been cooled 
off in the vaporizer passes into one or more cylindrical vessels 
which are provided with an iron spiral stairway with perforated 
steps. The salt solution falls down slowly, like a cascade, while 
the air which is to be cooled is drawn in an opposite direction 
by means of a ventilator and is then conducted into the cooling 
room. 

Linde's ice machine is distinguished by the fact that a number 
of rotating iron disks close together upon a common axis are dipped 
into the salt solution which immediately surrounds the vaporizer, 
while the air which is to be cooled passes over the parts of the 
disks which are above the solution, but which are constantly moist- 
ened. The cooled air is conducted in shafts under the floor or over 
the ceiling of the cold storage plant by ascending and descending 
tubes into horizontal distributing tubes on the ceiling of the cooling 



"836 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

room. It is claimed that by means of Linde's apparatus the air is 
renewed 8 to 10 times per hour. 

The above described artificial devices for cooling meat make 
use of salt solutions as agents for transmitting cold produced in 
the vaporizers. The interpolation of these intermediary substances 
causes a certain amount of loss which is avoided in the Fixary sys- 
tem. In this system the air to be cooled is immediately passed over 
the coiled tubes of the vaporizer. Now, in order to make it pos- 
sible to thaw out the tubes without any interruption of the cooling 
process, the coiled tubes are arranged in several separable systems 
which are inclosed separately and furnished with regulating valves. 
If one chamber of the system becomes covered with ice incrusta- 
tions, the vaporization in it is interrupted and the ice is melted by 
means of warm air drawn out of the cooling house. The transmis- 
sion of cold air to the cooling house is accomplished as in the sys- 
tems of Osenbriick and Linde. The regulation of the valves and 
ventilators is, according to Schultze, a simple matter, and the pro- 
duction of cold by this system is greater than in those above 
described. " For the air is cooled off in a very energetic manner 
with the most complete utilization of the cold produced in the vapor- 
izer and without any loss of energy in the intermediary substances. 
The dryness of the air need not be limited by the saturation point 
of the moisture capacity of any degree of temperature, but may fall 
below this. Moreover, the air may be reneAved by introducing fresh 
outside air, since no limit is set to the movement of the air within 
the cooling room. This possibility of abundant ventilation is a great 
advantage according to the view of experts, since too much air can 
not easily be introduced into an abattoir. 

Schultze observes also that cooling devices have been manufac- 
tured by the well-known machine manufacturer, Riedinger, of Augs- 
burg, which operate very nearly on the same plan. In this last- 
named method, however, carbonic acid machines are used, and the 
cooling is accomplished, not immediately on the tubes of the vapor- 
izer, but on special tubes which may be closed and which are filled 
with salt water. 

APPENDIX. 

1.— Location and Structure of Cold Storage Plants. 

According to Hofmann, the following points must be considered 
in the structure of cold storage plants : 



APPENDIX 837 

1. Easily accessible and practical unloading places. 

2. The floors must be easily cleaned and the greatest cleanli- 
ness must prevail. 

3. Abundant ventilation arranged so as to affect the whole 
space. 

Schultze calls attention to another point which has not been 
properly considered in the construction of many cold storage plants : 
The construction must be such that the air which enters the refrig- 
erating room, when the doors and passage ways are open, is of good 
quality and not laden with bad odors. The latter condition is not 
fulfilled when the cooling room is in immediate connection with the 
animal stalls. In order to secure cleanliness, Schultze recommends 
that the windows (with double or three-fold glass) should be capable 
of admitting sufficient light to enable one to detect any filth. In 
order to maintain the moisture content of the air in the cooling 
rooms at the same degree, it is desirable that freshly slaughtered 
meat should be allowed to cool in preliminary cooling rooms. 

Moreover, in the construction of refrigerator plants, great care 
should be exercised that odorous building materials, such as beams 
saturated with tar or carbolineum, or cement material saturated with 
tar (for example, tar cork building brick, tar paper) should be abso- 
lutely excluded, since meat possesses the power of absorbing and 
retaining such odors (page 747). The failure to recognize these 
facts has already led to serious errors in the construction of a pri- 
vate refrigerator plant in Koburg, as well as in the refrigerating 
halls of the public abattoirs in Lubeck, Koln, Zschopau, Koslin and 
Hiesa. 

Mechanical transportation, such as was established by Moritz 
iu the abattoir at Leipsic, must be considered the best means for 
carrying pieces of meat into the refrigerator room. 

Over every slaughtering place there is a sliding pulley which is 
Carried on a track which runs transversely through the hall. The 
forward and backward movement of the sliding pulley is produced by 
means of a wire cable which is attached to either end of the sliding 
pulley and is wound around a drum upon the ceiling of the hall. 
The drum is operated by a vertical shaft with conical cog wheels and 
a winch located at the place of slaughter. The second cable is 
attached to the sliding pulley in such a manner that by the aid of 
another windlass a hook which hangs from the body of the pulley 
may be let down and drawn up again. By means of this arrange- 
ment the beef animal hanging from a gambrel furnished with a long 
hook may be drawn up and transported wherever desired. 



838 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

As soon as the cattle have been slaughtered a-t the different 
killing places, they are immediately transported to the opposite side 
of the slaughtering hall by means of the sliding pulley, in order to 
remove them from malodorous material, such as intestinal contents. 
They are then let down on tracks which run longitudinally along 
the hall, and are transported directly to the cooling room. 

On the tracks are peculiarly-shaped cars provided with an 
arrangement for receiving the gambrels with the two halves of beef. 
As soon as the sliding pulley with the two halves of beef takes its 
position over one of the tracks, the car is pushed under the gambrel 
by means of a forked pole. The car receives the weight of beef upon 
a device intended for holding the gambrel, while the hook of the 
sliding pulley disengages itself by its own weight. The car is so 
easily moved that one person can readily propel it with its burden 
(two halves of beef) into the refrigerating room. 

One defect which is much complained of in poorly arranged 
refrigerating rooms is the appearance of a mouldy odor in the refrig- 
erated meat. Popp determined that the defective construction of 
the walls of the refrigerating room was the cause of this trouble. 
In such rooms he found that the cement wall is moist and contami- 
nated with numerous bacteria which produce a mouldy odor in 
bouillon cultures and on the cement. In refrigerating rooms fur- 
nished with zinc walls but few bacteria were to be demonstrated. 
Popp, therefore, recommends impervious and smooth wall surfaces 
in order to prevent the introduction of bacteria or gases produced 
by them into the air of the refrigerating rooms. That air actually 
penetrates through walls was demonstrated by Popp in a building 
in which a layer of tar asphalt was placed behind the cement wall. 
The odor of tar appeared in the room after a few weeks. Schilling 
called attention to other causes of the mouldy odor in cold storage 
plants (introduction of freshly slaughtered meat, freshly prepared 
sausage, pickled meat in brine, livers and lungs). In removing the 
moldy odor, Schilling had excellent results from the use of formalde- 
hyde fumes. In the refrigerating plant in Gottingen, whenever a 
moldy odor appeared, two Tollens' formaldehyde lamps were set in 
operation for a few hours, at the end of which time the air became 
dry and pure, without the appearance of any disagreeable effect in 
the meat. The preservation of pickled meat in the ventilating rooms 
is to be forbidden, since vaporization of the pickling fluid may pro- 
duce undesirable effects upon other meat which is preserved in the 
refrigerating plant. Schwarz recommended for preventing this 
trouble the establishment of a special separate pickling room in 



APPENDIX 839 

refrigerating plants, with which the rooms for cutting up the pickled 
meat may be advantageously connected. 



2.— The Necessity and Advantages of Cold Storage Plants. 

When we consider the tendency of meat to decompose, no 
further argument is necessary to show that refrigerating plants are 
an absolutely necessary feature of public slaughterhouses. Behrend 
rightfully says : " The cold storage plant forms an accumulator 
which eliminates the constant difference between the supply and 
consumption of meat." No abattoir without a cold storage plant is 
a principle which is recognized in a pleasing manner in the majority 
of the recent larger abattoirs and in some of the smaller abattoirs. 
Slaughterhouses of old-fashioned construction which were without 
the advantage of refrigerating rooms are now being furnished with 
modern cold storage plants. As a proof of the expediency of cold 
storage plants, we may mention the following results obtained from 
experiments which Hengst instituted in the cold storage plant of the 
abattoir at Leipsic, concerning the keeping power of. meat in 
midsummer. The experiments were made on the hindquarters of 
cattle, calves, sheep, and hogs. It was shown that the hindquarters 
of cattle had lost 1.8 kg.; those of calves, 0.5 ; those of sheep, 0.3, and 
those of hogs, 0.5 kg. No further loss of weight occurred during the 
experiment (in the case of the calf and hog quarters after two weeks, 
and in the case of the cattle and sheep quarters after four weeks). 
"With regard to the keeping power of the meat, it was demonstrated 
that the calf and hog quarters began to show evidence of decompo- 
sition after fourteen days and the beef quarters after about twenty- 
four days. No such phenomena were demonstrated, however, in the 
mutton quarters, even after four weeks. The process of decomposi- 
tion on the cross section of the beef musculature was for the most 
part caused by bacilli. The decomposition products were almost 
odorless and were confined to the surface, while the underlying 
parts of the meat exhibited a perfectly normal appearance and the 
normal meat odor. The meat had not deteriorated in palatability 
as a result of standing in the cold storage plant, either in a raw, 
boiled, or roasted condition. It seemed, on the contrary, to have 
improved in this respect. 

From these experiments it appears that meat preserved in cold 
storage plants is much improved in its keeping properties, and that 
the palatability and juiciness of the meat are increased rather than 



840 PRESERVATION OF MEAT 

diminished. With regard, however, to the loss of weight which the 
meat suffers during the first few days in a cold storage plant, it is 
scarcely greater than the loss caused by the action of the air under 
ordinary conditions. 



XYII. 

BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION AND THE 
HARMLESS DISPOSAL OF MEAT. 



1.— Boiling. 



Effect of High Temperatubes on the Harmful Properties 
of MEAT.^Boiling is an important factor in the hygiene of meat, 
for it is possible by means of boiling to destroy certain injurious 
properties which attach to raw meat, to render dangerous meat 
harmless, and to make it utilizable as human food. In the discus- 
sion of the animal parasites of meat (Cysticerci and Trichina), 
attention has already been called to the fact that they may be 
-destroyed with certainty by boiling. Consequently, heating the 
meat to a high temperature may be characterized as an effective 
liygienic measure for use in the case of a large number of infectious 
diseases. 

We know from careful experiments that animal and vegetable 
parasites, however resistant to lower temperatures, are, in the 
majority of instances, readily destroyed by high temperatures. 
Cysticerci die at temperatures of 45° to 50° C, trichina at 69° C, 
and all animal parasites at the coagulation temperature of albumen. 
This varies for the different kinds of albumen, but is not higher in 
any case than 70° C. Plant parasites (pathogenic bacteria) usually 
require higher temperatures for their certain destruction. Spores, 
particularly, are able to withstand even the temperature of boiling 
water. Fortunately, however, in the pathogenic bacteria which 
occur in meat we have to deal with spores only in exceptional cases 
(in blackleg, malignant edema, tetanus at the point of inoculation 
3,nd occasionally anthrax on the surface of meat after skinning). As 
a rule, pathogenic bacteria are present in meat in the vegetative 
form. Vegetative forms, however, without exception, die at tem- 
peratures below that of the boiling point of water. 

The important hygienic effect of boiling was long since demon- 
strated empirically by the fact that measly and trichinous pork may 



841 



842 BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION, ETC. 

be eaten in a boiled condition without bad effects. For example, 
Marclii, in Florence, found only 1 Tcenia solium among 35 taenia 
which he collected during a certain period, while during the same 
period not less than 13,000 measly hogs were imported into Florence 
and were consumed in that city. In southern Germany, Austria- 
Huugary, Italy, France and England, tiichinous hogs are eaten 
without harmful results because they have been previously cooked. 
The energy and capital which are thus saved become apparent 
from the statement that Berlin is compelled to pay 750,000 marks 
yearly for protection against trichina. Berlin, however, employs 
only 250 trichina inspectors, while, on the other hand, in the King- 
dom of Prussia there are 28,000 ! 

Moderately high, or even high temperatures are insufficient to 
destroy injurious substances of a chemical nature, such as the toxic 
metabolic products of bacteria. Kitasato demonstrated that the 
metabolic products of the tetanus bacillus are changed into harm- 
less combinations under the influence of a temperature of 65° C. 
for a few minutes. Similarly, Fischer and Enoch found that a cer- 
tain kind of fish toxin does not withstand boiling, and Van Ermen- 
gem demonstrated that sausage poison (toxin of botulism) is ren- 
dered inert by a boiling temperature. We know from the history 
of meat poisoning, however, that toxic substances from the septic 
bacteria are, as a rule, not destroyed by boiling. Thus, in an out- 
break of meat poisoning in L , near Bregenz, Griessbeckerzell> 

Middelburg, Frankenhausen and Cotta, it was shown that not only 
boiled meat, but also the meat broth was harmful. In an outbreak 
of meat poisoning in Katrineholm, those persons who ate large 
quantities of the meat broth were most seriously affected, and, 
finally, in Darkehmen it was shown that only the meat broth was 
poisonous. 

The case is similar with putrefactive bacteria. Decomposed 
meat is harmful even in a boiled condition, as shown by experience 
and experiments instituted to determine this point. 

Accordingly, it would be unjustifiable to characterize boiling as 
a universal hygienic measure for preventing the harmful results of 
eating meat, as may be claimed for the boiling of water and milk for 
the purpose of preventing injury to health as a result of the inges- 
tion of these drinks. 

Heat Conducting Power op Meat. — In the destruction of 
animal parasites and bacteria by boiling, we have to consider care- 
fully a peculiarity of meat which under certain circumstances makes 



BOILING 843 

"boiling a measure of problematic value. Meat is a poor conductor 
of heat. According to experiments conducted by Landois, meat, in 
the stricter sense, the musculature, is a much poorer conductor of 
heat than other animal tissues, which, in and of themselves, are 
characterized by their poor conductive power. Landois found that 
bones were the best conductors, the following materials being 
arranged in the order of their conductivity : Blood cakes, spleen, 
liver, cartilage, tendons, muscles, elastic ligaments, etc. According 
to Glage, the fat tissue is a better conductor than the musculature. 
It is thus explained why heat penetrates so slowly into meat that 
the boiling point of water is not reached in the central layers of the 
meat even after long continued boiling, and that finally the parts of 
the meat lying in contact with bones acquire higher temperatures 
than the parts lying more distant from the bones. 

Perroncito demonstrated that in large pieces of meat, such as 
hams weighing 8 kg., the temperature in various central parts of the 
material did not reach more than 84° C, even after three hours' 
boiling. 

Rupprecht found that boiling for 45 minutes, as is customary 
in lower Saxony, did not produce a higher temperature than 75° C. 
and this only in thin pieces of meat. In blutwurst, the temperature 
rose only to 66° C. during the same period ; in tongue sausage and 
headcheese to 61.5° C; in schwartenmagen, only to 58.75° C. 
Rupprecht determined the temperature of thoroughly boiled ham 
at 65° C, while that of pork boiled in the usual manner, together 
with vegetables, was the same. Meat dumplings, so much liked in 
Saxony, reach a temperature of not more than 58.75° C. when 
prepared in the usual manner, and, finally, sausages which are 
quickly roasted attain a temperature of only 28.75° C. 

According to Kiichenmeister, large pieces of so called fresh 
boiled pork are heated to a temperature of not more than 60° C, 
after the usual half-hour period of boiling — in the inner layers, not 
more than 55° C — and require boiling for several hours in order to 
reach a temperature of 77° to 80° C. 

According to a statement of Leuckart, bratwurst and cutlets 
attain a temperature of 62.5°; roast pork 75°, when prepared in the 
usual manner ; and only 65° C. when prepared by the English 
method. 

Wolffhugel and Hiippe demonstrated that the temperature in 
the interior of large pieces of meat never rises to 100° C, even after 
several hours' boiling or roasting. This temperature was reached 
only once, even in the superficial layers. 



844 BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION, ETC. 

The following results were obtained in the experiments of 
Wolffhiigel and Hiippe : 

1. A leg of veal, weighing 14.25 kg., 73 cm. long, 43 cm. wide 
and 17 cm. thick, was roasted for 3| hours in a roasting tube of a 
cooking machine at a temperature of 103° 0. A thermometer 
introduced into the meat indicated temperatures of 71°, 76° 
and 89° C. 

2. A smoked ham, of 4.5 kg. weight, 36 cm. long, 22 cm. wide 
and 10 cm. thick, was boiled in a cooking vessel in salt water for 
4 hours at a maximum temperature of 102° C. The thermometer 
indicated temperatures of 75°, 77° and 78° C. in the center of the 
meat. 

3. A piece of veal, weighing 3 kg., 25 cm. long, 13 cm. wide 
and 12 cm. thick, was roasted in the roasting tube of a cooking 
machine for 3 hours. The thermometer in the roasting tube 
reached 155° C. The highest temperatures in the meat were 93°, 
96° and 98° C. 

4. A piece of veal, weighing 3 kg., 20 cm. long, 18 cm. wide 
a-nd 13 cm. thick, was roasted in the roasting tube of a cooking 
machine for 3 hours and showed internal temperatures of 93° and 
98° C. 

5. A piece of beef, weighing 3 kg., 25 cm. long, 16 cm. wide and 
9 cm. thick, was placed in boiling water and boiled for 2 J hours. 
The thermometer in the water registered 105° C, while in the meat 
temperatures of 91° and 92° C. were reached. 

6. A piece of beef, weighing 3 kg., 37 cm. long, 16 cm. wide and 
8 cm. thick, was laid in cold water and boiled for 2| hours. The 
temperatures determined in the meat were 95° and 96° C. 

By the use of steam under pressure (in a Nageli steaming ves- 
sel), Wolffhiigel and Hiippe produced temperatures above 100° C. 
(102°-109° C.) in meat inclosed in conserve cans when the cans were 
not large, but held about three-quarters of a pound. 

By means of a thermometer constructed for the purpose and 
which was introduced into the deep-lying portions of pieces of meat, 
Petri tested the penetration of heat into large pieces of meat and 
obtained the following results : In a shoulder piece weighing 4,430 
gm., the thermometer introduced into the interior of the meat after 
3| hours' cooking showed that the temperature of the meat was 84° 
and of the bones 85.5° C After remaining 4 hours in a roasting 
oven, shoulders of hogs showed temperatures of 79.5 Q and 91.5° C, 
and in the case of a ham which had likewise been roasting 4 hours, 
the temperatures were 62.5 and 86° C. 



BOILING 845 

Hertwig instituted detailed experiments with regard to the pene- 
tration of high degrees of temperature into meat while boiling in 
a Becker-Ulmann boiling apparatus.* 

In order to obtain results utilizable in practice, Hertwig, in his 
experiments, did not proceed according to the weight of the pieces 
of meat, but according to the thickness. He used pieces of meat of 
any desired length, but of the thickness of only 6 to 12 cm. The 
pieces of meat were laid in the hot water, which in the larger vessels 
showed a temperature of 94° and in the smaller 100° C, but which 
after receiving the meat was cooled down to 71° and 81° C. By 
introducing steam the former temperature was reproduced within a 
period of 45 to 50 minutes. After this was accomplished, the vessel 
was closed and was again opened after the lapse of 2 hours. The 
temperature of the water in the larger vessel was then 87.5° C. and 
in the smaller 92° G, or 7° to 8° C. lower than at first. The tem- 
perature in the interior of the pieces of meat in the larger vessel 
stood at 86° and in the smaller at 91.5° C. It was, therefore, only 
slightly lower than that of the surrounding water. 

Besults of Boiling Experiments. — From the experiments which 
have been instituted concerning the penetration of high tempera- 
tures into meat in boiling, it appears that we are able by means of 
rational and sufficiently prolonged boiling and roasting to produce 
with certainty, even in the interior of the meat, temperatures above 
70° C, or above the coagulation point of albumen. By the term 
rational boiling in this connection is understood the use of pieces 
of meat not to exceed 6 to 12 cm. in thickness. The boiling period 
should be 2| hours by the ordinary method of boiling, and 2 hours 
in the Becker-Ulmann apparatus, reckoned from the moment the 
water reaches the boiling point. 

The temperatures thus obtained are more than sufficient to 
destroy cysticerci and trichina; for these parasites die at 45° to 49° 
C. and 60° to 70° C. 

From the experiments above described, i£ is also apparent that 
by means of rational boiling we are able to produce in the interior 



* The Becker-Ulmann boiling apparatus, which was used in these experiments 
and has been introduced into several hospitals, barracks and other institutions 
for cooking on a large scale, consists of a double walled wooden chest surrounded 
by tile, in which there are three larger and three smaller chambers, the so-called 
pots, for receiving the water and meat. The spaces between the walls of the 
chest are filled with poor heat conductors. Each chamber is furnished with a 
closely fitting, double-walled cover. On the floor of each chamber there is a 
steam pipe, by means of which the meat or the surrounding water is heated. 



846 BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION, ETC. 

of the meat temperatures which lie above 85° and which are suffi- 
cient to destroy the virulence of the vegetative forms of most patho- 
genic bacteria, including the tubercle bacillus. 

There are two defects, however, which attach to boiling, even 
when conducted in a rational manner ; viz.: (1) the fact that the tem- 
peratures produced in the interior of the meat always vary within 
certain limits, and (2) the fact that we possess no easy and con- 
venient method for determining when the temperature in the interior 
of the meat has risen above 85° C. 

Without the aid of special apparatus we are only able to recog- 
nize that the meat has been heated to a temperature above 70° C. 
and we may know this, as already stated, by the discoloration of the 
musculature. 

The defects just named may be obviated by steam sterilization. 

Changes in the Weight and Composition of Meat as a 
Result op Boiling. — It has long been known that meat loses in 
weight during boiling and gives up a portion of its extractives into 
the boiling water. More detailed information on these points is 
furnished by the investigation of Ferrati and Nothwang. 

Ferrati found that the loss of weight was different at different 
temperatures, as shown in the following table : 

Beef 
Per cent. 

Half done (60° C.) 28.3 

Well done (70° C.) 31.3 

Well done (90° C.) 47.3 

Temperatures above 100° C. caused a further loss of weight 
which increased with the elevation of the temperature. 

Ferrati demonstrated, furthermore, that meat in rigor mortis 
suffered a greater loss of weight than meat which had not passed 
into rigor. The viscera were affected very differently by high tem- 
perature. At a temperature of 100° C, the heart loses most in 
weight (52.15 to 58.48 per cent.) ; next in order come the kidneys 
(31.47 to 37.77) ; liver (30.71 to 30.76); and the lungs (15.04 to 18.49 
per cent.). 

From the investigations of Nothwang, it appears that, in boil- 
ing and steaming fresh meat, between 50 and 60 per cent, of the 
extractives and about 35 per cent, of the phosphoric acid pass over 
into the broth. Pickled meat loses some of its extractives and 
anhydrous phosphoric acid in boiling and steaming, so that the 



Veal 


Pork 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 


26.8 


21.6 


39.2 


32.0 


47.3 


41.1 



STEAM STERILIZATION 847 

total loss in weight from pickling and boiling exceeds that which 
ordinarily occurs in boiling and steaming. The changes in weight 
shown by fresh meat in pickling, boiling or steaming are best pre- 
sented in the following table : 



Fresh 


Pickled 


Boiled 


Steamed 


100 


69.9 


49.5 


47.4 


100 


67.3 


50.3 


43.4 


100 


78.1 


51.5 


49.3 



Noack demonstrated in 19 beef animals a loss from boiling of 
39.2 per cent, and in 25 hogs an average loss of 344 per cent. 

2. — Steam Sterilization of Meat. 

Value op the Method. — In another place, I have called atten- 
tion to the fact that we have entered into a new and economically 
very important phase of practical meat hygiene, since Hertwig 
demonstrated that by the use of steam under pressure in suitable 
apparatus, it is possible within a comparatively short time to heat 
with certainty all parts of meat to a temperature of 100° C. It is 
thus actually possible, as Hertwig says, "to preserve as valuable 
iood material for man large quantities of meat which have thus 
far gone to the knackers as practically worthless," for all objections 
which may be raised against the reliability of boiling infected meat 
fall to the ground in the use of the method in question. 

Method. — Hertwig in his experiments employed a steam disin- 
fector constructed by Rohrbeck, in which a new principle, the 
so-called method of pressure differences, was utilized. The appara- 
tus possesses a device for the rapid cooling of steam, whereby the 
latter is condensed, and at the same time part of the latent heat of 
the steam set free by condensation is given off to the objects in the 
apparatus. By prolonged cooling, a minus pressure arises in the 
steam chamber which causes the gases to escape from the meat. 
Freshly introduced steam can thus readily enter into all parts of 
the meat which is to be disinfected. The disinfector consists of an 
iron double cylinder 2.62 meters long and 1.68 meters in diameter. 
The open ends may be closed air-tight by means of iron doors. 
Removable iron grates are arranged one above the other in the 
boiler, and the pieces of meat are laid upon them, side by side. 
Under each grate there is a roof-like zinc sheet, sloping toward 
either end of the apparatus and serving to receive the dripping 



848 



BOILING, STEAM STEKILIZATION, ETC. 



"broth and to allow it to run into zinc troughs on the floor of tha 
boiler. 

In Berlin the apparatus is connected with the steam system of 
the slaughterhouse, in which the boiler, as a rule, registers a pres- 
sure of 2 to 2| atmospheres. In the disinfector itself, a pressure 
of 1 atmosphere is sufficient. In the experiments, however, the 
pressure was never made so great, but operations were usually car- 
ried on with | or | of an atmospheric pressure, the latter, however,, 
for only a short period. 

Fig. 256. 




Rohrbeck's steam disinfector. 



The steam enters from above and can be admitted directly from 
the boiler or may first be passed into the double wall (mantel) and 
may be conducted thence into the disinfector. By meaus of a 
special valve, it is possible to introduce the steam only iuto the 
mantel, whereby the apparatus, after the steaming operation is 
finished, may be operated as a dry chamber. The steam escapes from 
the floor of the boiler through several openings which lead into 
steam pipes furnished with stop cocks. 

For small institutions, Bohrbeck has prepared meat sterilizers 
with direct heat, which cost only 600 to 1,200 marks and require 
but little space and may be heated by gas or coal as desired. 



STEAM STEKILIZATION 849 

Duncker (Zeifc. fur Fleisch u. Milchhyg., Vol. 1) made the fol- 
lowing report of Hertwig's experiments : 

Before the meat was placed on the grates it was cut up in the 
usual manner by a butcher into pieces weighing about 3 to 6 kg., 
and measuring from 12 to 15 cm. The lungs, livers and other vis- 
cera were occasionally incised, but only when they were greatly 
enlarged and thickened as a result of pathological processes. After 
the meat had been laid upon the grates, a tested maximum ther- 
mometer was introduced into specially selected pieces of meat under 
a strict observation of all necessary precautions. Furthermore, in 
the center of several pieces of meat which appeared to be the most 
difficult ones to steam, a contact thermometer, especially constructed 
for these experiments, was placed, which, when a temperature of 
100° C. was reached, caused a bell to ring outside of the boiler. The 
cords attached to the thermometers were wound with wire, which 

Pig. 257. 



Contact thermometer, a, spiral coil; b, alloy; c, apertures in the metallic case. 

was introduced through the walls of the boiler and was connected 
with an electric battery and the numbered signal bells.* 

In this way it can be instantly known when a temperature of 
100° C. has been produced in the interior of the pieces of meat. In 
order that the highest temperature reached in the. steam chamber 
may be controlled, another, tested maximum thermometer is hung 
in this chamber. 

Results from Experiments. — The experiments thus conducted 
with regard to the penetration of heat into meat showed that uni- 
formly lean meat is difficult to boil thoroughly. Even in larger 
pieces of such meat, however, a temperature of 100° C. was reached 
after the lapse of 2| hours. On the other hand, such pieces as are 



* The contact thermometer consists of a metal case in which one pole of the 
electric coil or spiral is separated from the other pole by an alloy which melts at 
a temperature of 100° C. (Fig. 257). As soon as this temperature is reached in 
the alloy plate, the poles come into contact, the electric current is closed, and 
the signal bell is set in action. 



850 



BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION, ETC. 



ordinarily found on the market require a much shorter time for 
thorough steaming. 

On the basis of these experiments, Hertwig emphasizes the fact 
that in order to secure a rapid and certain heating of the meat to 



Fig. 258. 




Henneberg's raea± steamer. 



a temperature of 100° C, it is necessary that the meat be first cut 
into pieces 12 to 15 cm. thick and 3 to 6 kg. in weight. 

It should also be observed that meat treated in a steam steri- 
lizer is very juicy and possesses a more agreeable odor and taste 



STEAM STERILIZATION 851 

than that which has been cooked in water. The odor and taste 
are more like those of roasted meat, so that even beef, which, when 
cooked, is not so eagerly purchased as pork, finds a ready sale when 
steamed. 

Henneberg-'s Meat Steamer. — Further experiments in the 
direction of those by Hertwig have shown that the method of pres- 
sure difference, which is utilized in the apparatus of Rohrbeck, is 
not a necessary requirement for the complete and certain steaming 
of meat. Thorough steaming may be accomplished also in single- 
walled sterilizers. An apparatus of this simpler sort has been con- 
structed by Henneberg, and on account of its low price (1,100 to 
1,500 marks) has already been distributed quite widely. 

Construction. — The apparatus consists of a boiling vessel 
proper (Fig. 258, a) which is closed above in a steam-tight manner 
with a cover, b. In order that this cover may be easily lifted, it is 
balanced by means of a chain, pulley and a balanced weight, which 
latter runs in the column, /. The floor of the boiling vessel is 
double-walled and the space between the walls, c, is provided with 
a direct steam pipe, d, as well as a pipe for carrying off the con- 
densation, e. The rest of the apparatus consists of a safety valve, g, 
and a manometer, the removable wire basket, i, air cock, Jc, and dis- 
charge cock, I. 

The apparatus is operated in the following manner : In the first 
place, the boiling vessel, a, is filled with pure water, so that the bot- 
tom is entirely covered, and then the seasoning necessary for the 
meat broth is added. Thereupon the meat sprinkled with salt and 
condiments is distributed uniformly in the wire basket, i. The 
cover, b, is closed tightly, and then, by opening the steam valve, d, 
the water of the boiler is brought to a boiling point. The steam 
thus produced arises and surrounds the meat, while at the same 
time the air contained in the boiling vessel escapes through the air 
cock, Jc. As soon as the steam begins to escape through the cock, 
Jc, the latter is closed, whereupon a pressure soon arises in the boil- 
ing vessel, which may be read on the manometer, and the upper 
limit (| of an atmosphere) is regulated by the safety valve, g. The 
meat is thus exposed to the action of pure water steam under a 
pressure of | of an atmosphere, corresponding to a temperature of 
118° to 120° C. The juice which percolates out of the meat is col- 
lected in the bottom of the boiling vessel and forms, when mixed 
with the water and concentrated, a palatable meat broth. After the 



852 BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION, ETC. 

steaming process is completed, the steam valve, d, is closed, and as 
soon as the pressure in the boiling vessel, a, is again down to 0, the 
air cock, k, is opened and then the cover, b. The meat is then 
removed, either from the wire baskets in separate pieces, or the 
baskets together with the meat are taken out of the apparatus. For 
this purpose the baskets are furnished with suitable handles. The 
bouillon is ladled out in the usual manner. It is not desirable 
that the broth be drawn off through the cock, I, since the fat would 
thereby be irregularly distributed in the different portions of the 
broth. 

According to Liebe, 2^ hours on an average is sufficient for 
heating even larger pieces of meat throughout to a temperature of 
100° C. 

Budenbeeg's Disinfector. — This apparatus occupies a hori- 
zontal position, and, like Eohrbeck's disinfector, is furnished with 
grates placed one above the other. The apparatus is so constructed 
that it may be used simultaneously as a destructor and meat steamer, 
for it makes possible the application of a steam pressure of 2J 
atmospheres. Against the use of one and the same apparatus for 
the destruction of material which has been absolutely excluded from 
the market, on the one hand, and for the steaming of food intended 
for human consumption, on the other hand, there are certain scruples 
which, although of an aesthetic nature, can not be suppressed. The 
utilization of separate apparatus for each of these processes is 
unquestionably to be preferred. 

Hartmann's Meat Sterilizer. — The firm of R. A. Hartmann, in 
Berlin, manufactures a meat steamer which is not operated by direct 
boiler steam, but which changes water in the apparatus itself into 
steam. The impurities of boiler steam are thus prevented from com- 
ing into contact with the meat. 

Careful experiments by Olt, Abel and Glage have shown that 
conditionally dangerous meat in pieces weighing 2 to 3 kg. and 
measuring 10 cm. in thickness may be thoroughly boiled and steri- 
lized by subjection to steam for two hours in Hartmann's sterilizer 
under a pressure of \ an atmosphere. 

Hartmann's meat sterilizer consists of a metal cylinder in a, 
horizontal position, provided with a heating surface. The steaming 
baskets intended for receiving the meat are placed in the apparatus 
by hand or by a sliding grate. The lower part of the apparatus, 
-which is intended for the introduction of the boiling water, is sepa- 



STEAM STERILIZATION 853 

rated by a transverse wall. After the apparatus lias been closed 
by screwing on the front cover, steam from the boiler is introduced 
upon the heating surfaces for the purpose of producing a high tem- 
perature. The water is thereby heated and the air in the appara- 
tus is driven out by the steam through an air cock placed in the roof 
of the apparatus. After the air is blown out, the air cock is closed 
and the meat is steamed under pressure. 

According to Kiihnau, boiling in the Hartmann apparatus is 
most successfully accomplished when the apparatus is filled with 
water up to ^ the height of the lower transverse wall and when the 
boiler steam is introduced into the heating boxes under pressure of 

4 to 5 atmospheres. The discharge of the cold air requires under 
these conditions 25 to 30 minutes. It may be assumed that the air 
is all blown out when steam escapes from the air cock in a uni- 
formly white stream. The time required for steaming pieces of 
meat weighing 2 to 3 kg., measuring 10 cm. in thickness, is, on the 
average, 2 hours, after closing the air cock. In the case of large 
old cattle, it is desirable to steam the meat for ^ hour longer, while 
in calves and young pigs, the period of steaming may be shortened 

5 hour. The steam pressure may be increased to | of an atmos- 
phere during the first quarter of an hour and may be maintained for 
the remaining 1| hours at ^ an atmosphere. 

Practical Rules for the Steam Sterilization of Meat. — 
The experiments of Abel demonstrate that pork may be, as a rule, 
somewhat more easily steamed than beef. On the other hand, 
pieces which inclose plates of bone, much fat, and which are 
inclosed with uninjured rind, and also pieces of poor meat, are diffi- 
cult to steam. Abel, therefore, recommends that shoulder pieces, 
hams, very fat meat with the uninjured rind and poor muscle meat 
should be steamed in pieces weighing not more than 2 kg. Hams 
must always be split, while thin pieces of meat (flanks and rib 
pieces) may weigh as much as 5 kg. (Kiihnau). Glage found that 
pieces of meat which lie upon one another and are closely pressed 
together do not become thoroughly steamed. The pieces of meat 
should, therefore, not be ia contact. After the steaming process is 
completed, the steam should be discharged as quickly as possible, 
for the sooner the apparatus is opened the brighter gray the color 
and the more appetizing the appearance of the meat. Glage deter- 
mined that the gray coloration of the meat began at the temperature 
of G0° C. The meat becomes light or whitish gray on the surface 
and is flabby and soft. The firmer consistency which indicates the 



854 BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION, ETC. 

coagulation of albumen and which occurs simultaneously with the 
darker gray coloration of the blood and muscle pigment shows that 
the meat has been subjected to a temperature of 70° to 75° C. 
Glage characterizes such pieces of meat as "well boiled." Kidman, 
on the basis of temperature determinations, gives the following 
criteria for insufficiently and perfectly steamed meat : 

1. Cut surface, grayish-red ; meat, tough ; bloody meat jnice ; 
temperature, 60° to 70° C. 

2. Cut surface, gray (grayish-white) ; meat, firm ; reddish meat 
juice ; temperature, 70° to 80° C. 

3. Cut surface, gray (grayish-white) ; meat, tender ; colorless 
meat juice ; temperature, 80° C. 

The latter meat is to be characterized as thoroughly cooked. 

Loss of "Weight in Meat as a Eesult op Steam Steriliza- 
tion. — According to P. Falk, the loss of weight in beef amounts to 
53.75 to 64.4 per cent, (on an average, 60 per cent.) ; and in pork, 
37.54 to 51.05 per cent, (on an average, 46.04 per cent.). Hengst 
also found the loss of weight in beef as a result of sterilization to be 
higher than 50 per cent., while in pork it was somewhat lower, but 
always three-sevenths of the dressed weight. Liebe, Rieck and 
Noack likewise determined considerable losses of weight in steriliz- 
ing meat. They were, however, lower than those which were found 
by Falk and Hengst. Rieck, for example, found the average loss 
in 21 beef animals to be 43.1 per cent., while in 37 hogs it was only 
16.7 per cent. Noack found an average loss of 44.9 per cent, in 97 
cattle, 34.5 per cent, in 191 hogs, 43.4 per cent, in 21 calves and 41.5 
per cent, in 30 sheep. 

For the purpose of reducing this considerable loss in weight 
during the steam sterilization of beef, Rohrbeck proposed that 
sterilization be practiced with a lower pressure (from one-tenth to a 
maximum of one-fifth atmosphere), for beef lost only about one-third 
of its weight when sterilized by steam under such pressures in the 
Berlin Central Abattoir, under the direction of Reissmann. 

3.— Harmless Disposal of Meat Absolutely Excluded From 

Sale. 

Necessity for the Harmless Disposition op Meat Confis- 
cated at Slaughterhouses. — The German Veterinary Council, at 
its fourth meeting, made the following declaration with regard to 
the regulation of the business of knackers : " It is most desirable 



DISPOSAL OF MEAT 855 

that animal cadavers be rendered harmless by the aid of chemical 
agents or by a high degree of heat (boiling, burning). Burying is 
permissible only when the method of removal just mentioned is not 
practicable." 

The statements made regarding the cadavers of animals which 
have died a natural death hold true for organs and whole animals 
which are absolutely excluded from the market. In the discussion 
of the structure and internal arrangement of abattoirs, attention has 
already been called to the fact that more care than heretofore 
should be given to the harmless removal of pathologically altered 
organs, especially those which are affected with animal or plant 
parasites, and that the Saxon municipal ordinance of January 16, 
1890, forbidding the throwing away and burial of tuberculous parts 
in dung heaps, deserves all consideration. The fact was also 
emphasized that in small abattoirs in which the number of con- 
demned parts and animals is but small, the process of burning is 
sufficient. In all larger institutions, on the other hand, it is neces- 
sary to introduce devices by which these waste products may be 
not only rendered harmless, but may also be utilized as far as pos- 
sible. These arrangements should be connected with abattoirs, 
since, according to past experience, manifold opportunity is offered 
on the way to the knacker for underhand dealing with highly 
spoiled and dangerous meat (compare page 40). 

The other waste products which are found in abattoirs, the 
contents of the stomach and intestines, and the blood, are most suit- 
ably utilized according to the method of Ploennies. Ploennies 
peptonizes cattle and sheep blood, which is not utilized for food 
purposes, with the aid of the stomach contents of slaughtered hogs. 
The peptonized blood is then mixed with the dried contents of the 
paunch of slaughtered ruminants and in this manner a valuable 
feeding stuff (peptone feed) is prepared from waste products which 
were formerly almost or quite valueless. The intestinal contents 
from the stalls of the abattoir and feces containing straw are worked 
over by Ploennies by mixing them with uu slacked lime, so as to 
form a firm fertilizer mass. An institution for the preparation of 
peptone feed has already been established at the Central Abattoir 
in Berlin. 

The following statements may be made concerning the various 
methods for the harmless removal of the confiscated waste products 
in abattoirs. 



856 BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION, ETC. 



(a) Simple Burning 1 . 

This is undoubtedly tlie surest means of removing all excluded 
animal parts, but is at the same time the most irrational, for the 
fuel value thus obtained in the most favorable cases from the 
cadavers is very slight. Simple burning can be excused only in 
quite small institutions in which the establishment of special 
apparatus would not be profitable. The utilization of special burn- 
ing ovens in large abattoirs, however, is quite unsuitable. In such 
cases the burning of confiscated meat means an unwarrantable 
waste of valuable material, quite aside from the fact that consid- 
erable expense for fuel is incurred in burning the material. 

Incineration may be accomplished in the fire box of a steam 
boiler. Feist constructed an incineration oven in an anthrax region 
according to the principle of lime kilns. The use of this apparatus 
has proved to be a valuable veterinary measure. The incineration 
of large animal carcasses, however, costs about 16 marks. A special 
burning oven for confiscated meat has been constructed by the firm 
of Kori in Berlin, and is characterized by an accessory fire box for 
drying the material to be destroyed. Kori's incinerating ovens for 
the destruction of confiscated meat have been established at the 
abattoirs in Niirnberg, Liegnitz, Stralsund and St. Petersburg. The 
ovens receive pieces of meat weighing 10 to 12 centners, together 
with the contents of stomachs and intestines, and cost from 1,500 to 
2,500 marks, according to size. The incinerating oven of Schaller 
and Gorini and Yenini are constructed in a similar manner. 

According to Weyl, it is customary in England to burn animal 
cadavers in Tryer's Destructor. These destructors, however, are 
chiefly valuable for the incineration of rubbish. 

(b) Chemical Treatment. 

In connection with the operation of reducing animal carcasses 
in a purely chemical manner, mention is made in the literature of 
the subject of the method of Porion. He constructed a distillation 
apparatus, in which parts of carcasses are thrown, together with the 
addition of potash and iron filings for the purpose of producing 
dry distillation and also to obtain as final products animal charcoal 
and yellow prussiate of potash. This method has enjoyed, there- 
fore, only a slight extension, since it is not very profitable. 



DISPOSAL OF MEAT 857 

The method of Rohkramer is a chemical thermic one. The 
material to be worked over by this method is placed in sulphuric 
acid and heated with it for 24 hours. During this boiling, a homo- 
geneous, more or less thick, gruel is obtained from the material of the 
•carcasses, from which the upper layer of fat is first removed. To 
the remainder, steamed bone meal from which the gelatin has been 
removed is added in order that the superfluous sulphuric acid may 
lae combined and the sulphuric acid content of the material 
increased. After a short time, the mass assumes a sufficiently thick 
consistency to be dried and pulverized. 

Before Rohkramer, Sombart used a still simpler method of 
foiling in sulphuric acid for the destruction of anthrax carcasses 
and thereby prepared compost from the cadavers boiled in sulphuric 
acid. 

Boiling in sulphuric acid is a certain and profitable method, 
and is absolutely certain, since boiling in sulphuric acid destroys 
«ven the most resistant bacteria. The only disadvantage of this 
method is the danger in handling the sulphuric acid. 

(c) Steam Sterilization Under Hig"h Pressure. 

This method for the harmless disposal of carcasses should be 
preferred above all others. It not only satisfies all hygienic require- 
ments, but renders possible the most advantageous utilization of the 
"valuable constituents of the animal body. By the use of steam 
under pressure, temperatures may be produced, which, on the one 
band, far exceed 100° C. (up to 150° C.) and destroy all organic life, 
even the most resistant bacterial spores, and, on the other hand, 
dissolve the organic structures of tissues to such an extent that the 
component elements of the latter, especially albuminates, salts and 
substances which yield gelatin and fat, are separated from one 
another. 

The principle of steam sterilization under high pressure is 
utilized in practice in various forms. 

1. Treatment of Carcasses in So-called Digestors. — Digestors 
are iron cylinders, several meters in height and about one meter in 
diameter. They are constructed according to the principle of Papin's 
Digestor and resemble gelatine steamers, which have long been in 
use in bone gelatine factories. These cylinders receive the parts of 
the carcass to be destroyed after the latter have been previously 
•comminuted. Thereupon this material is subjected to live steam 



858 BOILING, STEAM STEPJLIZ1TION, ETC. 

under a pressure of 2£ to 3 atmospheres. The statements concern- 
ing the length of the period of steaming vary : Reclam asserts that 
2 to 3 hours are sufficient. In Vienna also the period of steam- 
ing under pressure is, according to Toscano, only 3 hours. In the 
Berlin Fiscal Knackers' Establishment, on the other hand, the 
parts of meat to be destroyed are left in the digestor for 8 to 10 
hours under steam pressure. 

After the material has been thoroughly steamed, the fat aud 
gelatin water are drawn off. The fat is conducted into clarify- 
ing pans, where it is purified by chemical and mechanical means 
in order that it may be utilized as machine oil and in the manu- 
facture of soap. The gelatin water is likewise clarified aud then 
condensed. According to Reclam, gelatin may be used in the 
manufacture of printers' rollers and for a finishing material in cloth 
mills. The remainder (parts of meat aud bones freed from fat 
and gelatin) are placed in a kiln for drying and are pulverized 
by means of a grin ding- and-sif ting apparatus.* The latter may 
be used not only as a fertilizer, but also for feeding hogs and fish. 
The most valuable product obtained from this manipulation of 
carcasses is the fat. This may have a value of 40 marks or more 
per 100 kg. On the other hand, the gelatin and animal meal are 
in part either absolutely unsaleable or can be sold only with diffi- 
culty (Resow). If, as is generally assumed, animal meal proves to 
be valuable in the future as a feeding stuff, the profit from th& 
manipulation of carcasses will be considerably greater than here- 
tofore. 

Reclam states that in Leipsic the artificial fertilizer establish- 
ment provided with digestors can profitably haul away the carcasses 
and pay a small sum for them. This sum amounts to 15 marks 
for large animals in a poor condition and 55 marks for fat animals. 

2. The Copenhagen Method op Destkuction. — In Copen- 
hagen, there is a special institution established for destroying and 
utilizing meat which has been confiscated in abattoirs. The meat 
to be destroyed is placed in the upper room of the destructkm. 
establishment, which is constructed at the level of the upper edge 
of the cylindrical destructors. In this room the necessary com- 
minution is performed, whereupon the meat is thrown into the 
destructors and is steamed under a pressure of 3 to 5 atmos- 



* Large quantities of this material are annually sold in this country. The 
poultry industry alone consumes hundreds of thousands of pounds. — Covert. 



DISPOSAL OF MEAT 859 

plieres for 4 or 5 hours with periodical discharge of the steam. 
After this operation is completed, the fluid which is collected in 
the destructors is drawn into a large cylindrical boiler occupying 
a vertical position and constructed with a conical bottom in such 
a manner that the cylindrical part lies in the upper room, while 
the conical bottom projects into the lower room. After the fluid 
has settled, the "soup" is drawn off through a cock in the bot- 
tom and the fat remaining behind is boiled with water. After the 
fat has been purified in this manner, it is drawn off into vessels 
and thus furnishes a finished trade product, utilizable for techni- 
cal purposes. The steam obtained by blowing off the destructors 
and from boiling the meat is conducted into a worm in a recep- 
tacle filled with water. The steam is thus condensed and the fluid 
is carried off into the sewer. By this means warm water is obtained, 
for bathing, washing and filling the vessels, and at the same time 
bad odors from the boiling processes are avoided. 

3. The Method of Podewils. — This method, which has been 
in practical use for 18 years in Augsburg, consists of cutting up> 
the animal carcasses into large pieces and placing them in a heated, 
rotating drum. This drum operates as a high-pressure steamer, 
drying apparatus and pulverizing machine. The parts of carcasses 
are steamed under a pressure of 5 to 6 atmospheres (corresponding; 
to a temperature of 150° to 160° C), and after the fat has been drawn 
off, together with the so-called gelatin broth, it is dried by steam 
heat and simultaneously pulverized. The extraction of the fat from, 
the carcasses is promoted by washing the cadaveric mass after a 
period of 2 hours' steaming by means of hot gelatin broth obtained 
from a previous operation of the apparatus, and this process is con- 
tinued until the whole apparatus is filled up to the level of the 
manhole. By means of a valve located near the manhole and a, 
connecting pipe, the fat is then forced out of the apparatus in a 
pure condition. After the separation of the fat, the gelatin broth 
is also dried. The whole process takes place without contact with 
the air and the fumes which are developed are condensed in water, 
while the gases which can not be condensed are passed under 
fire. The parts of carcasses introduced into the apparatus leave it 
in the form of a pulverizable, dry animal meal. 

The advantages of this method, according to a statement of 
the inventor, consist (1) in the complete absence of odors ; (2) in 
a favorable action of the rotation of the drum upon the commi- 
nution and desiccation of the material ; and (3) in the simultane- 



860 



BOILING, STEAM STERILISATION, ETC. 



©us desiccation of the so-called gelatine water, whereby all danger 
associated with the fluid is avoided. 

The method of Podewils has been introduced into the abattoirs 
at Barmen, Kattowitz and Beuthen in Silesia, and Aarhus and 
Odense in Denmark. It has also been utilized for a long time in 

Fig. 259. 




Podewils' apparatus for reducing carcasses. 

various knackers' establishments (Augsburg, Munich, Graz, Ham- 
burg, Friedberg in Hessen, Dresden, Caanstatt, Hatzfeld, near Bar- 
men, and Lausanne in Switzerland. 



Profit from the Application of Podewils' Method. — In judg- 
ing the profit to be derived from the application of Podewils' method 
for the treatment of carcasses, the following table, published by- 
Tollers, may be of interest : 



DISPOSAL OP MEAT 



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BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION, ETC. 



The price obtained for the fat is 40 io 42 marks per double 
centner, and for the fertilizer 11 to 12 marks. 

la 1894, a total of 509,565 kg. of raw material was utilized. The 
profit amounted to 53,350 kg., or 9.04 per cent, fat, with a value of 
about 23,474 marks, and 139,456 kg., or 24.5 per cent, of the mass in 
fertilizer, with a value of 16,734 marks. The fat obtained by Pode- 
wils' method, as in all other methods, naturally varies according to 
the fat conteut of the material used. 

Fig. 260. 




4. De la Croix's System, named for the Veterinarian de la 
Croix, Director or the Abattoir in Antwerp. — The apparatus 
constructed by this veterinarian has been introduced also in Ger- 
many through the efforts of Lydtin and is now manufactured by 
the firm of Rietschel & Henneberg in Berlin under the name 
" Kafill Disinfector." 

The apparatus consists of three cylinders (Fig. 260). The 
largest cylinder or disinfector proper (the first cylinder on the left 



DISPOSAL OF MEAT 863 

in the figure) is furnished with a steam chest ; that is, it is con- 
structed with double walls and possesses at the top an easily remov- 
able cover for introducing the carcasses, etc. The second cylinder 
is a receiver, in which all of the fluid portions, fat and gelatin broth 
extracted from the carcasses are collected, while the third and 
smallest cylinder serves as a condenser for the fumes and gases 
which are drawn off from the other cylinders. The sterilizer is con- 
nected with a steam boiler by means of a special pipe and is heated 
by one pipe from the steam boiler, while another pipe leads to the 
inside of the sterilizer by means of three branches which may be 
closed with valves. 

Other pipes furnished with valves branch off from the highest 
and lowest point of the disinfector. They unite and pass to the 
receiver in the form of curved pipe. The connection of the latter 
with the condenser consists in a transfer pipe which can not be 
closed, the end of which is bent in the form of a semicircle, is per- 
forated with small holes and penetrates into the water in the con- 
denser. From the upper end of the condenser, :a pipe which is kept 
constantly open leads to the fire box. 

The remainder of the construction of the receiver and con- 
denser is alike. It consists of sprays, gauges, stop cocks and dis- 
charge valves. Moreover, the receiver is provided with special 
stop cocks. 

After the apparatus is rilled in the proper manner, the cover 
is closed steam-tight and the apparatus is heated by opening a 
valve in the steam chest. The dry heat in the interior of the dis- 
infector is thus communicated to the layers of meat, so that the 
steam which operates on them later finds a material which is 
already hot and produces its full effect without condensing. After 
this preliminary warming process has been carried on for thirty 
minutes, the true disinfection process is begun by introducing 
steam into the disinfection cylinder. The steam is now under 
the full pressure of the steam boiler and the material in the 
disinfector is subjected to the action of the steam for six to 
twelve hours. 

5. Hartmann's Extraction Apparatus. — This apparatus for the 
destruction of carcasses is constructed like the Kafill Disinfector. 
This new apparatus, like the Kafill Disinfector, consists of three 
vessels connected with one another by pipes ; viz.: (1) a vertical 
sterilizer which serves at the same time as a fat extractor; (2) a 
horizontal cylinder for the reception and evaporation of the gelatin 



864 BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION, ETC. 

water ; (3) a rectangular wrought-iron condenser for receiving the 
fumes from the other two vessels. 

Furthermore, the structure consists of a drying apparatus with 
rotating catchers and two steam-heated iron shoulders, as well as a, 
Gruson Excelsior Mill. 

While in the Kafill Disinfector destruction is brought about 
by direct steam from the boiler after the preliminary heating of the 
meat, the material in Hartmann's apparatus is steamed in its own 
water, as in an autoclave, for the purpose of saving expense. It 
was found, however, that steaming the material in its own water 
required a longer time, and was, therefore, more expensive than 
steaming with direct steam from the boiler. For this reason Hart- 
mann has abandoned his new method and boils the material with 
direct steaming during the first half of the boiling period. 

The time required by this method, which, like that of the Kafili 
Disinfector, is odorless, is, according to Colberg, from 6 to 8 hours. 
After the process is ended, the clarified fat may be completely- 
drawn off from the* first cylinder. The gelatin water in the second 
cylinder is then steamed until a thick fluid mass remains. The 
steaming process lasts " several hours " and takes place during 
sterilization and also during the drying and pulverization of the 
residue of the meat and bones. 

According to a statement of the manufacturer, Hartmann's 
destroying apparatus has been introduced into 12 institutions dur- 
ing the last two years (1900-1901). 

The dry fertilizer powder amounts to about 12 per cent, of the 
raw material. The fat obtained in 24 experiments amounted to 
only 5.3 per cent., but, according to Colberg, may be estimated at 8 
per cent, on an average. The amount of gelatin obtained was also 
8 per cent. In Magdeburg, 36 marks was the price paid for fat per 
double centner and 11 marks for the gelatin. The value of a 
double centner of fertilizer was estimated at 8.5 marks. 

6. Otte's Apparatus. — This apparatus is said to accomplish 
steaming, drying and pulverizing in one apparatus, as in Podewils' 
method. The whole apparatus consists, likewise, of three vessels > 
a disinfector, receiver and gelatin steamer. A simple digestor is; 
also used as an accessory apparatus for receiving whole carcasses. 

The most important part of the apparatus, the disinfector, is a 
double walled stationary cylinder, within which a perforated drum 
revolves which serves to receive dissected carcasses, parts of meat 
and other animal waste products. Inside the mantle of the station- 



CONCLUDING REMARKS 865 

ary cylinder are peculiarly arranged shovels and brushes, which, by 
constant motion aud turning, hasten the desiccation of the animal 
meal and serve to empty the apparatus completely after the desicca- 
tion is accomplished. 

In order to operate the apparatus, the mantle of the cylinder is 
first heated by steam under a pressure of from 4 to 6 atmospheres 
and the drum is turned. After a short time the steam is admitted 
into the interior of the cylinder, whereby the cooking process is 
begun. In the meantime the revolution of the cylinder is continued 
for about one hour. The drum is then allowed to remain quiet 
until the extraction of the fat and gelatin is completed, after about 
3 hours. The fluids which drip through the perforated drum are 
forced into the receiver. As soon as the dripping ceases, the outer 
mantle of the cylinder is heated for the purpose of drying the 
extracted cadaveric masses. The perforated drum is also moved 
backward and forward. It is said that after about five hours the 
whole contents of the drum become dry and maybe ground through 
the perforations by means of edge rollers. 

It should also be noted that there is a steaming vessel in use 
for the technical utilization of confiscated meat in the abattoir at 
Zwickau, and Rohrbeck and Budenberg recommended their disin- 
fectors also for the harmless destruction of animal carcasses. 

Concluding Remarks. 

Veterinarians will deserve the great gratitude of stock raisers 
if they earnestly strive to introduce devices everywhere, but chiefly 
in abattoirs, whereby not only a certain destruction of whole 
animals and parts excluded from consumption, but also an advan- 
tageous technical utilization of this material may be accomplished. 
By this means a considerable portion of the national wealth will be 
saved instead of wasted and the great loss which agriculture 
suffers through the condemnation of whole animals or parts of 
animals will be diminished. 

Appendix. 

Enforcement of Section SI of the Imperial Meat Inspec- 
tion Law. 

By an Imperial decree of February 16, 1902, it was ordered that 
Section 21 of the Meat Inspection Law should go into force October 



866 BOILING, STEAM STERILIZATION, ETC. 

1, 1902. This paragraph forbids the utilization of materials and 
also methods of procedure in the commercial preparation of meat, 
which may lend the products an injurious property or which are 
calculated to conceal harmful or inferior quality. In the proclama- 
tion of the Imperial Chancellor of February 18, 1902, the materials 
the utilization of which is forbidden from and after October 1, 1902, 
are named. 

The decree of February 16, 1902, with regard to the partial 
enforcement of the law concerning the inspection of food animals 
and meat of June 3, 1900 : 

We, Wilhelm, by grace of God German Emperor, King of Prussia, etc. , in 
the name of the Emperor and with the consent of the Federal Council, decree on 
the basis of Section 30, line 2, of the law concerning the inspection of food 
animals and meat, of June 3, 1900, the following : 

Section 21 of the law concerning the inspection of food animals and meat of 
June 3, 1900, shall go into force October 1, 1902. Simultaneously, the provisions 
of Section 26, No. 1, Section 27, No. 1., and Sections 28 and 29, shall go into force 
so far as they concern violations of Section 21, paragraphs 1 and 2, of a prohibition 
issued on the basis of Section 21, paragraph 3. 

Wilhelm, 
Count von Posadowsky. 

The proclamation of the Imperial Chancellor reads as follows : 

Proclamation concerning injurious and deceptive additions to meat and its 
products, February 18, 1902. 

On the basis of Section 21 of the law concerning the inspection of food 
animals and meat of June 3, 1900, the Federal Council has rendered the following 
decisions : 

The provisions of Section 21, paragraph 1, of the law apply to the following 
materials, as well as to preparations containing such materials : 

Boric acid and its salts ; formaldehyde ; hydroxidsand carbonates. of alkalies 
and alkaline earths ; sulphurous acid and its salts as well as hyposulphites ; 
fluoric acid and its salts ; salicylic acid and its combinations ; salts of hydro- 
chloric acid. 

This applies also to coloring materials of all kinds, except that it shall not 
be construed to mean the prohibition of the utilization of a yellow coloration of 
oleomargarine and the coloration of sausage casings in so far as this utilization, 
^does not violate other provisions. 

Count von Posadowsky. 

Berlin, February 18, 1902. 



INDEX 



Abattoir; see Slaughterhouses. 

— veterinarians, appointment of, 54. 
Abdominal glands, 183. 
Abnormal physiological conditions, 

237. 
Accidents, 741. 
Achlya nowicki, 707. 

— prolifera, 707. 
Acid fermentation, 745. 

in game, 746. 

Actinomyces bovis, 342, 654. 
Actinomycomata, 656. 
Actinomycosis, 275. 

— general account, 654-662. 

— of the muscles, 366. 

— of the tongue, 276. 

— in the horse, 660. 

— in sheep, 660. 

— in man, 660. 
Adenoma of liver, 297. 

Adipose tissue, abnormal coloration 
of; see also Fat, 245. 

— appearance of , 184, 202. 
Adulteration, 102. 

— of sausage with flour, 770. 

— with other material, 782. 

— German law concerning, 783. 
Agamodistomum, 404. 

Age, criteria for judging, 221, 226. 

— of cattle, 222. 

— deer, 225. 

— ducks, 228, 

— fowls, 227. 

— geese, 227. 

— hens, 227. 

— horses, 221. 

— partridges, 228. 

— pheasants, 228. 

— pigeons, 228. 

— sheep, 224. 

— slaughtered animals, determina- 
tion of, 221. 



Age of swine, 225. 

— turkeys, 227. 

Air bladder mesentery, 289. 

Air expansion machines, 833. 

" Albumina," mixed with sausage, 
780. 

Alcohol as a preventive of meat pois- 
oning, 714, 717. 

Alimentary canal, normal appearance 
of, 168. 

Alkalimeter, 800. 

" Alkermessaft " for coloring meat, 
787. 

Allantiasis, 758. 

Ammonium acetate, 820. 

Ampldstomum conicum, 281, 398. 

Amyloid degeneration, 257. 

Amylum, demonstration of, 777. 

Anasarca, 273. 

Anchylostomum bovis, 282, 283. 

— longemucronatum, 410. 
Anderson, Zimmermann and Acclom 

system of refrigerator cars, 830. 
Anemia, 367. 

Angiomatosis of the liver, 291. 
Anguillula aceti, 477. 
Animal meal, 858. 
Anoplocephala mamillana, 281, 395. 

— perfoliata, 281, 395. 

— plicata, 281, 395. 
Anthrax, 577-585. 

— bacilli, capsules of, 579. 

resistance to high temperature, 

584. 

— bacillus and cadaver bacillus, dif- 
ferentiated, 580. 

— differential diagnosis, 582. 

— procedure with meat in cases of, 
583. 

Antigrisein, 820. - 

Antisepsis, importance of, 548. 

Aphthous fever, 586. 



867 



868 



INDEX 



Apiosoma bigeminum, 535. 
Arsenic, 380. 

Asafetida, odor of in meat, 384. 
Ascaris capsularis, 407. 

— luvibricoides, 281, 406. 

— megalocephala, 281, 406. 
Aspergillosis, 326. 
Aspergillus fumigatus, 326. 

— niger, 326. 
Aspiration of blood, 331. 

— of stomach contents, 330. 

— pneumonia, 324. 
Atelectasis, 320. 
Atrophy, 251. 

Australian meat preserve, 814. 
Austria-Hungary, meat inspection 

in, 30. 
Autointoxication, 379, 385. 
Avian diphtheria, 705. 

— tuberculosis, 651. 
Axillary glands, 179. 
Azo-dyes for coloring meat, 787. 
Azoturia ; see Ischuria. 

Bacillus anthracis, 578. 

— botulinus, 761, 762. 

— bovis morbificans, 732. 
renalis, 307, 559. 

— cellulceformans, 752. 
■ — chauviei, 675. 

— coli communis, 682, 731, 733, 734. 

— crassus bovis, 559. 
pyogenes bovis, 559. 

— cyanogenes, 748. 

— enteritidis, 314, 315, 729, 730, 731, 
733, 752. 

— foetidus lactis, 682. 

— gastromycosis ovis, 678. 

— hemorrhagicus, 574. 

— liquefaciens pyogenes bovis, 559. 
. — mallei, 595. 

— mesentericus , 749, 752. 

— neapolitanus, 682. 

— prodigiosns, 748. 

■ — proteus vulgaris, 752. 

— pseudo-tuberculosis, 653. 

— pyocyaneus, 307. 

— pyogenes bovis, 559. 
foetidus, 559. 

— subtil™, 825. 

■ — svipestifer, 697. 

— suiseptieus, 694. 



Bacillus tetani, 576. 

— tuberculosis, 607. 

avium, 651. 

Backsteinblattern, 691. 
Bacon, black coloration of, 254. 

— pigmentation of, 2G9. 

— German and American, 220. 
Bacteria, chemism of, 551. 

— demonstration in meat, 740. 

— on meat, 748. 

— resistance to heat, 551 . 
Bacteriology and meat inspection, 548^ 
Bacterium coli; see Bacillus coli. 
Balbiania gigantea, 532. 
Balbianidaa, 532. 

Barbone disease, 674. 

Barmenit, 810. 

Barrows, 232. 

Beech chips for producing smoke, 807. 

Beech nuts, effect on bacon, 187. 

Beef bladder worm, 419. 

— usual location of, 427. 
Beef, character of, 200. 

— bones, 204. 

— classification of, 148. 

— fat, 203. 

Belgium, meat inspection in, 30, 33. 
Berlinit, 811. 
Bierwurst, 773. 

Bile ducts, inflammation of, 297. 
Bilharzia crassa, 405. 
Biliary peritonitis, 287. 
"Blackberry red," 787. 
Blackleg, 674-677. 

— bacillus, 675. 

— diagnosis, 676. 

— symptoms, 675. 
Bladder, diseases of, 309. 

— inspection of, 158. 

— worms, 419. 
Bleeding, defective, 742. 

— normal, 131. 

— • obtained by different methods of 

slaughter, 138. 
Bloating, 741. 
Blood, anomalies of, 367. 

— aspiration, 331. 

— bread, 168. 

' ; Blood color," for coloring meat, 787. 
Blood, normal appearance of, 167. 

— food, value of, 168. 

— quantity of, 131, 139. 



INDEX 



869 



"Blood sausage, 772. 

— spot disease, 574. 

— vessels, diseases of, 341. 
Bloody urine, 537. 
Blunzen, poisoning from, 759. 
Boars, cryptorchid and castrated, 

odor of meat of, 247. 
Boiling meat, 841. 
Boiling, effect of high temperatures 

upon dangerous meat, 841. 

— effect of high temperatures upon 
parasites, 841. 

— effect of high temperatures upon 
toxins, 842. 

— effect on weight and composition 
of meat, 846. 

Bolt hammer, 138. 

Bones, actinomycosis of, 353. 

— diseases of, 350. 

— normal appearance of, 176. 

— tuberculosis of, 351. 

— weight of, 177. 
Boophilus bovis, 536. 

Borax, use in pickling meat, 803. 
Boric acid, application in preserva- 
tion of meat, 809. 

— demonstration in meat, 811. 

— effect on man, 812. 

— in trade preparations, 810. 

— preservative effect of, 811. 
Boroglycin, 810. 
Bothriocephalus latus, 418. 
Botryomyces, 662. 
Botryomycosis, 662-665. 

— of the muscles, 366. 

— of the udder, 316. 
Botulism, 758. 

— bacteriology, 761. 

— occurrence, 759. 

— etiology, 760. 

— mortality, 763. 

— pathology, 762. 

— prophylaxis, 764. 
Braasot; see Braxy. 
Brain, diseases of, 348. 
Bratwurst, 772. 
Braxy, 677-679. , 
Breslau bacillus, 732. 
Brilliant-berolina in sausage, detec- 
tion of, 789. 

Brine, composition of, 803. 

— effect on microorganisms, 802. 



Brine for preserving meat, 800. 

— syringes, 800. 
Bronchial glands, 182. 
Broncho-pneumonia of calves, 670. 
Brown coloration of skeleton, 252. 
Bruhwurst, 772, 773. 

— water content of, 774. 

— starch in the preparation of, 774. 

— flour in the preparation of, 775, 779, 
Buck sheep, odor of meat of, 248. 
Budenberg disinfector, 852, 
Buffalo meat, 200. 

— bones, 204. 

— plague, 674. 

— skeleton, 205. 

Bulls, odor of meat of, 248. 
Burning condemned meat, 856. 
Butchering, art of, 122. 
Butchers' jelly, 391. 

Cachexia, 369. 

Cadaver bacilli, 575, 580. 

Cadaverin, 553. 

Calcareous concretions, 539-546. 

— deposits, 254. 

— fibrous tubercles in liver, 299. 
Calcification of peritoneum, 285. 
Calf diphtheria, 679. 

— dysentery, 681. 
" Calf feet," 772. 
Calves, inspection of, 159. 
Camphor, odor of in meat, 384. 
Canned meat, 822. 

— injurious decomposition of, 756. 

— introduction of, 85. 

— judgment on, 822. 

Carcass, treated in digestors, 857. 

— utilization of, 40. 
Carceag, 537. 
Carcinoma, 265. 

Carmin for coloring meat, 787. 

— detection of, 789. 

" Carmin substitute " in meat, detec- 
tion of, 789. 
Carnat, 814. 
Carne pura, 823. 
Carrion, 744. 

Caseous lymphadenitis, 652. 
Casting apparatus, '140. 
Castration of female animals, 233. 
Cat, skeleton of, 208. 
Cattle inspection, 157. 



870 



INDEX 



Cattle ticks, 536. 

Caviar, adulteration of, 783. 

— American, 783. 

— Elbe, 783. 

— Russian, 783. 

Cephenomyia rvfibarbis in pharynx 
of stag, 279. 

— stimulator in pharynx of roebuck, 
279. 

— trompe in pharynx of reindeer, 279. 
Cerebrospinal meningitis, 348. 
Cervelatwurst, 772. 

Cervical glands, 179. 
Cestodes, 394. 
Charque, 823. 

— dulce, 823. 

Cheiracanthus hispidus; see Gfnatho- 

stomum hispidum. 
Chemical preservatives, 800. 
prohibition of use of, 866, 

— utilization of condemned meat, 
856. 

Chemism of bacteria, 551. 

Chemistry of the musculature, 196. 

Chicken pox, 524. 

Chlorin flavor of meat, 747. 

Cholemia, 375. 

Cholin, 553. 

ChromosOt, 814. 

Circulatory disturbances, 258, 336. 

Cirrhosis of the liver, 292. 

Clam poisoning, 767. 

nature of, 768. 

recognition of , 768. 

Classification of beef, 148. 

in Berlin, 150. 

in Vienna, 150. 

in Paris, 149. 

in London, 148. 

— of food animals, 234. 

mutton, 151. 

pork, 151. 

veal, 151. 

" Clean " animals, 10. 
Cloudy swelling, 255. 
Clump liver, 291. 
Cocci, 549. 
Coccidia, 521. 

— in rabbit liver, 521. 
hog liver, 522. 

sheep intestines, 524 

Coccidium fuscum, 272. 



Coccidium oviforme, 272, 309, 521. 

— perforans, 523. 

— tenellum, 523. 

Cochineal for coloring meat, 787. 

— detection Of, 788. 
Coenurus cerebralis, 348, 395. 

— serialis, 395. 

Cold air machines, 833. 
Cold as a preservative, 824. 
" Cold butchering," 113, 132. 
Cold, effect of on putrefactive bac- 
teria, 825. 

— effect of on pathogenic bacteria, 
835. 

— for preserving meat, sources of,. 
828. 

— cars, 830. 

— storage, Fixary system, 836. 
plants, necessity . and value of, 

839. 
with artificial contrivances,. 

832. 

with ice, 828-. 

value of, 830. 

various systems of, 830. 

position and structure of, 836 

— vapor machines, 833. 

with circulating salt solu- 
tion, 833. 
Coloring fish gills, 102. 

— material, kinds of, 787. 

directions for detecting, 790. 

— matters, prohibition of use of, 866. 

— meat, 786. 
purpose,' 786. 

— sausages, judgment of, 791 . 

— Imperial Health Office, position of,. 
793. 

Colpitis, pernicious, 313. 

Compression machines, 833. 

Condemnation of meat, 84, 115, 155. 

Condemned meat, harmless methods 
ot disposal, 854. 

Cooking meat, 841. 

Cooking, effect on weight and com- 
position of meat, 846. 

Cooling meat, 826. 

Copenhagen method of destruction, 
858. 

Copper in oysters, 769. 

Corallin for coloring sausage casings, 
787. 



INDEX 



871 



Corn, effect on bacon, 187. 
Corned beef, 821. 
Corned brown, 821. 

— mutton, 821. 

Cotton seed oil in lard, 782. 

Courtoy and Coremans' method for 

demonstrating horse meat, 216. 
Cow pox, 591. 
Crangon vulgaris, 784. 
Crab plague, 708. 
Crayfish plague, 708. 

— spot disease, 708. 
Crustacea as food, 125. 

— poisoning, 766. 
Cryptogenetic pyemia, 563. 
Cryptorchids, 232. 

Curcuma paper for demonstrating 

boric acid, 811. 
Customs, inland, 86. 

— officials, 86. 

Cutis, erythrisms of, 268. 

— solutions of continuity, 268. 
Cysticerci, calcified, 543. 

— degeneration of, 433. 

— ■ in sausages, demonstration of, 430. 

— methods of killing, 434-438. 
by acids, 438. 

— — by freezing, 437. 

by heat, 434. , , 

long preservation, 437. 

pickling, 435. 

— unusual findings of, 423. 
Cystieercus bovis in the liver, 298. 
in the lung, 328. 

in the heart, 341. 

in the brain, 348. 

general account, 419. 

— cellulosce, 8. 

caseation and calcification, 446. 

infestation by, 447. 

location of, 448. 

in the liver, 298. 

in the lung, 328. 

in the heart, 341. 

in the lymph glands, 346. 

in the brain, 348. 

general account, 442-453. 

— disease in man, 8, 452. 

— inermis; see Cystieercus bovis. 

— ovis, 417. 

— pisiformis, 398. 

— tenuieollis, 9. 



Cystieercus tenuieollis in the liv.er, 298. 

in the lung, 328. 

in the peritoneum, 291. 

general account, 395, 450. 

Cystitis, 309. 

Cytodites nudus, 273, 335. 

Davainea tetragona, 283, 395. 

Death, natural, 743. 

diagnosis and judgment of 

meat in, 743. 
Deception in labels, 100. 
Decomposing meat, alkaline reaction 

of, 755. 
Decomposition, demonstration of, 754. 
in canned meat, 756. 

— judgment of, 757. 

— of meat, 751. 

influence of air on, 753. 

partial, 753. 

— toxins, 754. 

isolation of, 754. 

Deer, skeleton of, 207. 

Degenerations, 254. 

De la Croix system for treating car* 

casses, 862. 
Demodex phylloides suis, 390. 
Denmark, meat inspection in, 31. 
Deposits of lime, 254. 

— of pigment, 252. 
Diamond skin disease, 691. 
Differentiation of meat and organs of 

different animals, 166. 
Digestors for treatment of carcasses, 

857. 
Diphtheria of calves, 679. 

— relation to human diphtheria, 681. 

— of fowls, 705-707. 
Dipterous larvae, 390. 
Dipylidium caninum, 395. 
Discomyees equi, 662. 
Diseases, most important, 128. 
Dispharagus uncinatus, 407. 
Dissolutions of continuity, 251. 
Distomatosis, 401. 
Distomes, development of, 403. 
Distomum hepaticum, 328, 399. 

— lanceolatum, 402. 

— magnum, 405. 

— panereaticum in pancreas, 300, 405^ 
Dog, bones of, 207. 

— fat of, 203. 



872 



INDEX 



Dog, skeleton of, 207. 

Dogs slaughtered for food, 125. 

Double liver, 291. 

Double-loin calves, 201. 

Dourine, 538. 

Drepavidotcenia lanceolata, 394. 

— setigera, 394. 

Dresel's preserving salt, 810. 
Dressed weight, 188. 

rules for determining, 190. 

Dried meat, 823. 

Dropsy, cellular, 370. 

Drugs, odorific, effect on meat, 384. 

Dry pickled beef, 803; 

Dyestuffs in meat, demonstration of, 

787. 
Dysenteria hemorrhagica coccidiosa, 

523. 
Dysentery of calves, 681-683. 

Ecchymoses, 258. 

Ecchinococci in the myocardium, 340. 

— in the liver, 298. 

— in the lymph glands, 346. 

— general account. 501. 

— calcification of, 544. 

— death of, 508. 
jSchinococcus alveolaris, 508. 

— cysticus fertilis, 504. 
sterilis, 504. 

— disease in man, 9, 499. 

— granulosus, 504. 

— hydatidosus, 504. 

— midtilocularis, 836, 501, 508. 
in man, 510. 

— polymorphic, 501, 503, 505. 
— - unilocidaris, 503. 
Echinorynchus gigas, 406. 
Eckh art's preserving salt, 810. 
Edema, 272, 

— bacillus, 574. 

— malignant, 574. 
Egyptian meat regulations, 10. 
Electricity as an aid in pickling, 801. 
Emaciation, differentiation from 

poorness, 243. 

— judgment on, 244. 
Emergency slaughter, 63, 73, 710. 
percentage of injurious meat 

from, 711. 

difficulty in judging meat from, 

735. 



Emergency slaughter, bacteriological 

study of meat in cases of, 739. 
Emphysema, 320. 

— mesenterial, 288. 
Endocarditis, 338. 

— bacterial, 563, 693. 
Endocardium, diseases of, 337. 
England, meat inspection in, 31. 
English patent method of slaughter- 
ing, 130. 

Enteritis, hemorrhagic, of calves, 571. 

— infectious, 712. 

Entozoa and inspection, statistics of, 8. 

— in intestines, 281. 

— in the lungs, 329,599. 
Eosin for coloring meat, 787. 
Epicardium, diseases of, 336. 
Epithelioma contagiosum of fowls, 

524. 
Erysipelas of swine, 683. 
Eserin, 381. 

Esophagus, diseases of, 279. 
Esox lucius, 418. 
Ether, odor of in meat. 884. 
Eustrongylus gigas, 309, 407. 
Expansion machines, 833. 
Extractives of meat, 196. 

Farcy; see Glanders. 

Fasciola; see Distomum. 

Fat, anatomy and physiology of, 186. 

— decomposition of, 749. 

— importance of, 188. 

— influence of feed on, 187. 

— normal appearance of, 184, 202. 
Fatness, means of judging, 186. 
Fats, differentiation of, 202. 
Fattened condition, 185. 

Fatty abscesses, 257. 

— degeneration, 255. 

— infiltration, 2o6. 

— metamorphosis, 185, 256. 

— necrosis, multiple, 288. 
Feeding, influence on fat, 187. 
meat, 195. ■ 

— — odor of meat, 245. 
Feijaoada, 823. 

Fenugreek, influence on odor of 

meat, 246. 
Fermentation of meat, 745. 
Fertilizer factories, 42. 
Fetuses, meat of, 241. 



INDEX 



873 



Fetuses, judgment on, 242. 
Fibrillar rupture of muscles, 356. 
Filaria hemorrhagica, 407. 

— immitis, 407. 

— megastoma, 281, 407. 

— microstoma, 281, 407. 

— papillosa, 291. 

— pectinifera, 407. 

— scutata esophagea bovis in esopha- 
gus of cattle and sheep, 279, 407. 

— strongylina, 281, 407. 

— uncinata; see Dispharagus un- 
cinatus. 

Tir chips for producing smoke, 807. 
Fish, 125. 

— decomposition of, 766. 
detection of, 766. 

— diseases, 525, 707. 

— influence of as feed for animals, 245. 
■" Fish meat " degeneration, 257, 358. 

— parasites, 398, 418, 525. 

— poisoning, 766. 

— pox, 525. 

Fishy meat, 245, 247. 

Flaxseed, influence on the odor of 

pigeon meat, 247. 
Flour, adulteration of sausage, 770. 

— in sausage, judgment on, 779. 

legal considerations, 779. 

Flukes, 398. 

— in muscles, 404. 
Fluorin sodium silicate, 820. 
Food animals, 122. 
Foot-and-mouth disease, 121, 586. 

— diagnosis, 589. 

— sequelae of, 590. 

— virus of, 587. 
Formalin, 820. 

Fowl cholera, 672, 703, 705. 

— plagues, 703, 707. 
Fowls, inspection of, 87. 
Fractures, 351. 

France, meat laws in, 29, 30. 
Freezing meat, 826. 
Freibanks, 28, 46. 

— history of, 49. 

— distribution in Germany, 49. 
Frozen meat as army ration, 826. 
Fuchsin for coloring meat, 787. 

— — detection of, 788. 

(ralactococcus albus, 315. 



Oalactococcus flavus, 315. 

— versicolor, 315. 
Game, inspection of, 87. 
Gastroenteritis, 279. 
Oastrophiius in pharynx of horse, 278. 

— equi, 281, 394. 

— hcemorrhoidalis, 281, 394. 

— nasalis, 281, 394. 

— pecorum, 281, 394. 
Gaustadt bacillus, 732. 
Gelatin water, 858. 

German Imperial law concerning 
traffic in food, condiments and 
manufactured articles of May 14, 
1879, 95-99. 

— commentary on, 99-117. 
German Imperial law for control of 

rinderpest, 121. 

German Imperial law for the preven- 
tion and suppression of animal 
plagues, 117-121. 

German Imperial meat inspection law 
of June 3, 1900, 63-71. 

— commentary on, 71-95. 
German Imperial meat inspection 

law, enforcement of, 865. 
German meat regulations before 

Thirty Years' War, 12. 

after Thirty Years' War, 21. 

German quarantine decrees, 163. 
Germany, meat inspection in, 34, 63. 
Glanders, 594-601. 
Glanders bacillus, 595. 

— tubercles, 599. 
Glauber salts, 810. 

Glycogen, determination according 
to Lebbin, 217. 

— in horse meat, 210. 

— in veal, 239. 

— in fetuses, 242. 
Gnathostomum hispidum, 281, 407. 
Goat, fat of, 203. 

— bones, 206. 

— meat, differentiation of, 201. 
Goose septicemia, 707. 
Granular eruption, 270. 
Granulations, infectious, 267. 
Greek meat regulations, 11. 
Groenbarden oysters, 769. 

Hair follicle mite of hog, 390. 
Haplococcus reticidatus, 477. 



874 



INDEX 



Hare, skeleton of, 208, 209. 

— venereal diseases of, 398. 
Hartmann extraction apparatus, 863. 

— meat sterilizer, 852. 
Hautgout, 198, 745. 
Head, inspection of, 157. 
Head cheese, 772. 

" Head meat," 167. 
Heart, diseases of, 336. 

— inspection of, 157. 

— normal appearance of, 174. 

— tumors of, 339. 

Heat as a preservative, 821. 

— penetration into meat, 842. 

experiments to determine, 842. 

results of experiments, 845. 

Helminthiasis of dogs and meat in- 
spection, 9. 

Hematosporidia, 533. 
Hematuria of cattle, 310, 537. 
Hemin crystals in horse meat, 210. 
Hemoglobinemia, 374. 
Hemoglobinuria, 374, 537. 
Hemorrhages, 258. 

— course of, 259. 
Hemorrhagic septicemia, 669. 

— general account, 671 . 
Hemosiderin, 260. 
Henneberg meat steamer, 851. 
Hepatitis, 297. 

Herring, effect on bacon, 187. 
Heterakis ivflexa, 407. 

— maculosa, 407. 

— vesicularis, 407. 
Hippophagy, 123. 
Hirnleberwurst, 772. 
Hog, bladder worm, 442. 

— bones of, 207. 

— cholera, 696-703. 

anatomical findings, 698. 

bacteriology, 697. 

— — clinical symptoms, 697. 
diagnosis, 700. 

■ — — etiology, 699. 

judgment concerning, 702. 

— fat of, 203. 

Hogs, inspection of, 159. 
Holland, meat inspection in, 30. 
Holomyaria, 406. 
Horns, development of, 239. 
Horse, fat, 202. 

— bones, 204. 



Horse meat, 123, 199. 

declaration for, 88. 

diarrhea caused by, 124. 

and beef, differentiation of , 210^ 

and beef, differentiation of> 

Niebel's method, 2 10. 
and beef, differentiation of, 

modified Niebel's method, 214, 216. 
demonstration according to 

Hasterlik, 219. 

extract, 824. 

Horses as food, 123. 

— inspection of, 88, 157. 
Hyaline degeneration, 257. 

of muscle in hogs, 360. 

Hydremia, 369. 
Hydrophobia, 593. 
Hydrops, 258. 
Hypertrophy, 252. 
Hypostasis in pleura, 333. 

"Ice balls" 530. 
Ice houses, 829. 

value of, 829. 

Ichthysm, 766. 
Ictero-hematuria, 537. 
Icterus, 375. 
Iliac glands, 183. 
Imitations, 101. 

Immature veal, judgment concern* 
ing, 241. 

recognition of, 238. 

Immaturity, 237. 

— in calves, 238. 
Infectious diseases, 267, 547. 

etiology of, 549. 

transmissibility of, 114. 

Inflammation, 261. 

— croupous, 263. ; 

— diphtheritic, 263. 

— hemorrhagic, 264. 

— interstitial, 264. 

— oral mucosa, 273. 

— parenchymatous, 264. 

— productive, 261. 

— purulent, 263. 

— serous, 262. 

— with putrid exudations, 264. 
Inflation, effect on keeping quality of 

meat, 794. 

— of meat, 793. 

forbidden, 19, 797. 



INDEX 



875 



Inflation, judgment on, 796. 
■ — purpose of, 793. 

— recognition of, 795. 

— technique of, 794. 

— of lungs, 794. 
Infusoria, 537. 
Inguinal glands, 181. 

" Injected livers," 809. 
"Injurious to health," definition of 
term, 112. 

— experiments to determine this 
property, 113. 

Insects on meat, 747. 
Inspection, before slaughter, 136. 
■ — after slaughter, 153. 

— of diseased organs, 156. 

— course, 156. 

— of imported meat, 71 , 160. 
■ — chief points in, 155. 

- — compulsory, 45. 

— i districts, 64. 

> — post mortem, 65. 

— exceptions to, 74. 
■ — repetition of, 88. 
Inspectors, appointment of, 53, 77. 
■ — assistant, 56. 

- — empirical, 57. 

— examination of, 58. 

— appeal from, 59. 

■ — compensation, 53. 

— fees, 53. 

— hours of service, 55. 

— number of animals which they 
can inspect in one day, 56. 

— training of, 50. 
Intestinal contents, 169. 
Intestines, diseases of, 279. 

— septic diseases of, 572. 

— inspection of, 158. 
Intoxications, 379. 
Invasion diseases, 389. 

Iodin number of fat, 188, 219, 783. 
■ — reaction for glycogen , 214. 
Iridescence in meat, 363. 
Ischiatic glands, 184. 
Ischuria, black, in horse, 374. 
Italy, meat inspection in, 28, 30, 33. 
Ixodes bovis, 536. 

Jauerschewurst, 773. 

Japan, meat inspection in, 33. 

Jaundice, appearance of fat in, 245. 



Jerked beef, 323. 

Jewish meat regulations, 10. 

Jewish method of slaughter, 131, 132, 

138, 140, 142. 
Joints, diseases of, 353. 
Juniper berries for producing smoke, 

807. 

— bushes for producing smoke, 807. 

Kafill disinfector, 862. 

Karnit, 787. 

Keeping quality of meat, 798-799. 

Kerosene, odor of in meat, 384. 

Kidney, degenerations of, 301. 

— induration of, 304. 

— infarcts in, 301. 

— infectious granulations of, 308. 

— inflammation of, 302. 

— inspection of, 158. 

— lime and pigment deposits in, 301. 

— malformation of, 301. 

— normal appearance of, 174. 

— purulent inflammation of, 303. 

— nephritis in, 302. 

— tumors in, 308. 

— " white spot " in, 304. 
Killing ax, 134. 

Kleinschmidt's spring bolt, 136. 
Knacker's establishment, 40. 

— privileges, 40. 
Knackwurst, 773. 
Kochwurst, 772, 773. 

— water content of, 773. 
Kogler's spring bolt, 136. 
Kosher meat, 133. 
Kurten's spring bolt, 137. 

Lactic acid in muscles, 194. 
Lameness of newborn animals, 564- 
566. 

— of calves, 570. 

Laminosioptes cysticola, 273. 

Lard adulterated with cottonseed oil, 
782. 

Larynx, diseases of, 319. 

Laws, enforcement of, 94. 

— German Imperial of 1900, 63. 
commentary on, 71. 

— German law on foods, etc., of May 
14, 1879, 95. 

— court decisions, 105. 

— on suppression of animal plagues, 
117. 



876 



INDEX 



Laws, rinderpest, 121. 

Lead poisoning, 383. 

" Leather meat," 167. 

Lebbin's method for determination of 

glycogen, 217. 
Leberwurst, 772. 
Leptomitus laetens, 707. 
Leucomaine, 387, 768. 
Leukemia, 371. 
Licked beef, 391. 
Lime concretions, 539-546. 

— deposits, 254. 
Linguatula; see Pentastomum. 
Linseed oil, effect on fat, 188. 
Lipoma in fat tissue, 288. 
Lithotheria, 311. 

Live weight of animals, 189. 
Liver, abscess of, 297. 

— adenoma of, 297. 

— appearance of, 171. 

— atrophy of, 293. 

— cadaverous alterations in, 300. 

— calcareous-fibrous tubercles in, 299. 

— cirrhosis of, 296. 

— coccidiosis of, 299. 

— degenerations of, 294. 

— diseases of, 291. 

— hemorrhages of, 294. 

— infectious granulations of, 298. 

— inflammations of, 296. 

— inspection of, 157. 

— in Texas fever, 294. 

— necrosis of, 295. 

— pigmentation of, 293. 

— rupture of, 293. 

— tumors of, 297. 
Lobster poisoning, 767. 
Lota vulgaris, 418. 
Lumbar glands, 183. 

Lung, deposits of lime in, 321. 

— diseases, of, 320. 

— inspection of, 157. 

— mycosis of, 325. 

— non-glanderous tubercles in, 328. 

— normal appearance of, 173. 

— tumors in, 327. 
Lungwurst, 772. 
Lupinosis, 376. 
Lymphadenitis, 342. 

Lymphatic glands, appearance of, 177. 

— diseases of, 342. 

— tuberculosis of, 343. 



Lymphoma, 345. 

Lyssa of dog tongue, 176. 

Malaria, bovine, 537. 
Male animals, odors of, 247. 
Malformations, 250. 
Malignant catarrhal fever, 667. 

— edema, 574. 
Mammitis; see Mastitis. 
Mange, 121. 
Marennes oysters, 769. 

Marennin, a coloring matter in oys- 
ters, 769. 

Masticatory muscles as seat of cysti- 
cerci, 427. 

Mastitis, etiology of, 314. 

— septic, 572. 
Measle worms, 419. 

Measly beef, judgment of, 441. 
■ Measly cattle, regulations concerning, 

439. 
■ — meat, sale of, 17, 19. 

— pork, procedure with, 453. 
Meat, abnormal odor of, 245. 

— absorption of water by, 770. 
as affected by the addition of 

flour, 771. 

— as food, 2. 

— as medium for bacteria, 198. 

— bacteria in, 748. 

— classification of according to food 
law of Germany, 115. 

— " combining power " of , 770. 

— consumption of, 3. 

— contamination during slaughter, 
745. 

from insects, 747. 

— cuts and classification, 145. 
of beef, 146. 

of mutton, 151. 

of pork, 151. 

of veal, 151. 

— decomposing, 751. 

— definition of, 77. 

— demonstration of abnormal odor, 
248. 

— differentiation of, 115, 199. 

— extract, 215, 823. 

nutritive value of, 824. 

of Liebig, 824. 

of Maggi, 824. 

of Koch, 824. 

of Kemmerich, 824. 



INDEX 



877 



Meat extractives, 196. 

— fitness for table, 197. 
for food, 81, 83. 

— industrial utilization of, 75. 

— influence of feed on, 195. 

— inspection and entozoa, 8. 

— inspection, detection of epizootic 
outbreaks by, 6. 

history of, 9. 

in antiquity, 9. 

ia Germany before Thirty 

Years' War, 12. 

since Thirty Years' "War, 21. 

other countries, 28. 

in cities, 36. 

— — rural districts, 37. 

municipal ordinances, 60. 

nature of, 1. 

present status of in various 

countries, 29. 

— Germany, 34. 

problems, 1. 

value of for agriculture, 5. 

— judgment on odorous, 249. 
— ■ mincing establishments, 42. 

— nutritive value of fat and poor, 191. 

— percentage composition, 192. 

— poisoning, 712. 
etiology, 729. 

list of outbreaks, 713. 

prophylaxis, 728. 

— post-mortem alterations in, 745. 

— power of conducting heat, 842. 

— meat preserve, 814. 

— rations in German army, 4. 

— signs of disease in, 76. 

— toughness of, 197. 

— traffic, German prohibitive decrees 
against various countries, 163. 

— — supervision of, 50. 

scientific experts, 50. 

compensation and appoint- 
ment, 53. 

— fees, 53. 

abattoir veterinarians, 54. 

hours of service, 55. 

Mediastinal glands, 182. 

Melanin on peritoneum, 288. 

Melanosis, 252. 

Mercaptan in decomposing meat, 755. 

Mercuric poisoning, 382. 

Merlacciiis vulgaris, 786. 



Meromyaria, 406. 
Mesenterial emphysema, 288. 
Mesenteric glands, 184. 

— inspection of, 158. 
Mesogonimus westermanni, 405. 
Metals, harmful, admixture with 

meat, 747. 
Metamorphosis, fatty, 255. 
Metaplasia?, 254. 
Metastases in pyemia, 560. 
Methemoglobin in sausage, 791. 
Metritis, septic, 571. 
Mettwurst, 772. 
Micrococcus ascoformans, 662. 
— : botryogenus, 662. 
-- candicans, 808. 

— - mastitidis gangrcenosoz ovis, 315. 

— tetragenus, 315. 
Miescheridse, 528. 
Miescher's sacs, 528-531. 

— calcified, 540. 
Milk fever, 386. 

Minced meat poisoning, 764. 

— cases, 765. 

— occurrence, 765. 

— prophylaxis, 766. 

— symptoms, 765. 
Mohammedan meat regulations, 12. 
Moniezia alba, 395. 

— benedeiri, 395. 

— expansa, 281, 394. 

— neumanni, 395. 

— pianissimo, 395. 
Moorseele bacillus, 731. 
Morbus maculosus, 573. 
Mosaic food laws, 10. 
Mouth, diseases of, 273. 
Mucoid degeneration, 257. 
Multiple hemorrhages, 355. 
Mummified fetus, 311. 
Municipal regulations, 60. 
Muscarin, 553. 

Muscle, distomes, 404. 

— rigor, 194, 

— power of fixing water, 195. 
Muscular degenerations , 357. 
Musculature, chemical properties of, 

196. 

— diseases, 355. 

— histology of, 194. 

— normal appearance of, 192. 

— pale condition of, 364. 



878 



INDEX 



Musculature, physical characters of, 

194. 
Mussels, poisonous, 768. 
Mutton, cuts of, 151. 

— differentiation of, 201. 
Myocardium, diseases of, 340. 
Myosin, 194, 196. 
Myositis, 364, 530. 
Mytilism, 768. 
Mytilotoxin, 768. 
Myxobolus cyprini, 526. 

— pfeifferi, 525. 
Myxofibroma, 334. 
Myxosporidia, 525. 

Nagana, 537. 

Nasal cavity, diseases of, 318. 

Navicula ostrearia, eaten by oysters, 

769. 
Nebelah, 133. 
Necrosis, 260. 

— bacillus, 296, 680. 

Necrotic skin disease of hogs, 693. 
Nemathelniinthes, 405. 
Nematodes, 405. 

Nematode tubercles in intestines, dif- 
ferentiation of, 284. 

— in wall of intestines, 281. 
Nephritis of various forms, 301-308. 
Nerves, diseases of, 349. 

Nettle fever, 693. 

Neuridin, 553. 

Neurin, 553. 

Neuroma, 334, 349. 

New Zealand meat preserve, 814. 

NiebeFs method of demonstrating 

horse meat, 210. 
Normal appearance of meat and 

organs of animals, 166. 
Norway, meat inspection in, 31. 
Notification of disease, 79. 
Nutmeg liver, 293. 
Nux vomica, 380. 

Ochronosis, 252. 

Odorific drugs, effect on meat, 384. 

Odors, absorption by meat, 747. 

— demonstration of, 248. 

— in meat, 245. 

— of male animals, 247. 
(JEsophagostomiim columbianum, 283. 

— inflatum, 283. 



CEstrus bovis, 390. 

— development of, 391. 

— in esophagus of cattle, 279. 

— ovis, 394. 
Oidium astaci, 708. 

— lactis, 3 L5. 

Oleomargarine factories, 42. 
Oligemia, 367. 

Omentum, inspection of, 158. 
Oncorhynclms quinnat, 786. 
Oppermann's cervelatwurst salt, 810. 
Organic diseases, 268. 

Originals, 232. 

Osmazom, 196. 

Osteomalacia, 350. 

Osteomyelitis, 350, 563. 

Otte apparatus for treating carcasses, 

864. 
Oyster poisoning, 768. 

etiology, 769. 

prophylaxis, 769. 

— containing copper, 769. 

Palcemon squilla, 784. 

Palisade worms, 410. 

Panaris of cattle, 680. 

Pancreas, diseases of, 300. 

Papilloma polyposum omasi, 285. 

Parasites, animal, 267. 

general account, 389-546. 

— meat infected with, 417. 
Parenchymatous degeneration, 255. 
Parturient paralysis, 386. 

— paresis, 386. 

Passing animals for slaughter, 80. 
Pathogenic bacteria, morphology of, 
549. 

— biology of, 550. 
Pathology, general, 250. 
Pearl disease, 335, 615. 
Pelvic glands, 183. 
Pentastomum, 281. 

— alterations caused by, 517. 

— distribution, 516. 

— denticulatum, 514. 

— tcenioides, 319, 499. 

general account, 513. 

Pepper amylum, 777. 
Perforative peritonitis, 286. 
Pericarditis traumatica, 555. 
Pericardium, diseases of, 337. 
Peritoneum, diseases of, 285. 



INDEX 



879 



Peritoneum, normal appearance of, 

175. 
Peritonitis, 286. 

— biliary, 287. 

— perforative, 281. 
Perlsucht; see Pearl disease. 
Pernicious anemia, 368. 

— colpitis, 313. 
Petechias, 258. 
Petechial fever, 573. 
Pharyngomyia picta in pharynx of 

stag, 279. 
Pharynx, diseases of, 278. 
Phlegmon of subcutis, 273. 
Phoenician meat regulations, 11. 
Phosphorescent meat, 749. 

— etiology of, 750. 
Photobacteriiim balticum, 750. 

— fischeri, 750. 

— indicum, 750. 

— luminosum, 751. 

— pfluegeri, 750, 751. 

— phosphor escens, 750. 
Pickling cellars, 41. 

— demonstration of, 804. 

— effect of, 801. 

on composition of meat, 805. 

— meat, 800. 

through the circulatory sys- 
tem, 801. 

— special methods of, 803. 

■ — with aid of electricity, 801. 
Pigment deposits, 252. 
Pilocarpin, 381. 
Piroplasma begeminum, 535. 
Pitchy mange, 270. 
Pithing, 134. 
Plant parasites, 547. 
Plerocerci, 413. 
Pleura, diseases of, 332, 

— infectious granulations of, 335. 

— normal appearance of, 175. 

— tumors of, 334. 
Pleuritis, 332. 

•Pleuro-peritonitis of hogs, 287. 
Pleuro-pneumonia of cattle, 121, 668. 
Pneumatosis cystoides intestinorum, 

289. 
Pneumomycosis, 325. 
Pneumonia, 322, 669. 

— by aspiration, 324. 

— verminous, 324. 



Podewils' method of treating car- 
casses, 859. 
Poisoning, 379. 

— by alkaloids, 379. 

— minerals, 379. 

Poisons, distribution in various 

organs, 383. 
Polyarthritis, 565. 

— septica, 570. 
Polymyaria, 406. 
Poorness, 242. 
Popliteal glands, 181. 
Pork, classification, 151. 

— differentiation of, 202. 

— measle worm, 442. 
Portal glands, 184. 
Post-mortem changes in meat, 745. 
Pottassium permanganate, 820. 
Potato flour mixed with sausages, 

771. 
Pox, 591. 

Precrural glands, 181. 
Pregnancy from the standpoint of 

meat inspection, 249. 
Prescapular glands, 179. 
Preservation of meat, 798. 
Preservation of meat by chemicals, 

800. 

— in sterile air, 798. 
Preservatives, 90, 798. 
Presssack, 772. 
Presternal calcification, 354. 
Probat, 814. 

Proteus virulentissimus, 585. 

— vulgaris, 568, 752. 
Protozoa, 520. ' 
Pseudo-farcy, 652. 
Pseudo-glanders, 600. 
Pseudo-leukemia, 345, 373. 
Pseudo-trichinae, 455. 
Pseudo-tuberculosis, 652. 
Psorosperm sacs, 533. 
Ptomaines, 553. 

Purpura hemorrhagica, 574. 
Purulent processes, generalization of » 

560. 
Putrefaction of meat, 752. 
Putrefactive bacteria, 752. 
Putrescin, 553. 
Putrid intoxication, 552. 
Pyelo-nephritis, 306. 
Pyemia, 556. 



880 



INDEX 



Pyemia, slaughter findings in, 561, 
736. 

— judgment on, 562. 

— special forms of, 563. 
Pyroligneous acid for preserving 

meat, 807, 
Pyrosoma bigeminum, 534. 

Quarantine regulations of Germany 
against foreign countries, 163-165. 

Rabbit, skeleton of, 209. 

Rabies, 593. 

Rachitis, 350. 

Railroad disease of cattle, 128. 

" Raincooling" apparatus, 835. 

Rancid fat, 749. 

— odor of meat, 677. 

Rape seed, influence on odor of meat 

of fowls, 247. 
" Red dysentery" of cattle, 523. 
Red water of cattle, 537. 
Reducing power of the musculature, 

198, 806. 
Refrigeration; see Cold storage. 
Refrigerator cars; see Cold storage 

cars. 
Reindeer plague, 679. 
Removal of meat in illegal manner, 

156. 
Renal glands, 184. 
Residual air in lungs, 173. 
Respiratory apparatus, 318. 
Retentio secundinarum, 553, 554, 556. 
Rhabditis, 408, 477. 
Rhachitis; see Rachitis. 
Rhinitis, croupous, 318. 
Rigor mortis, 194, 196, 197. 
Rinderpest, 665. 

Roebucks, distinction of sex in, 233. 
Rohkramer's preserving salt, 810. 
Rohrbeck steam disinfector, 847. 
Roman meat regulations, 11. 
Rosalin for coloring meat, 787. 
Rotlauf ; see Swine Erysipelas. 
Rouget blanc, 693. 
Roumania, meat inspection in, 30. 
Roumanian cattle plague, 537. 
Round worms, 405. 
Roup, 705. 
Russia, meat inspection in, 31. 



Sacral glands, 184. 

Safranin for coloring meat, 787. 

Saitenwurst, 773. 

Sal-ammoniac test for decomposition, 

755. 
Salicylic acid as a preservative, 819. 

— toxic action of, 819. 
Saline salt II, 810. 
Salmon, adulteration of, 785. 
Salt, effect on bacteria, 802. 
Salting meat, 800. 
Saltpeter, effect on man, 806. 

— influence on color of sausage, 791. 

— in pickling brine, 803. 

meat, 806. 

Salufer, 820. 

Sanitary significance of organs in- 
fested with non-transmissible para- 
sites, 417. 

Sanitat, 810. 

Sapremia, 552. 

— judgment on, 554. 
Saprin, 553. 
Saprolegnia fero, 707. 

— monoica, 707. 
Saprophytes, 552. 
Sareocystis miescheriana, 529. 

— tenella, 532. 
Sarcolactic acid, 196. 
Sarcoma, 265. 
Sarcophosphoric acid, 196. 
Sarcosporidia, 527. 

— in esophagus, 279. 

Sausage, adulteration with flour, 770. 

— factories, 42. 

— gray coloration of, 749. 

— introduction of, 85. 
-^ kinds of, 772. 

— poisoning, 758. 
Schachten, 132, 140. 
Schechita, 133. 
Schlackwurst, 772. 
Schreiber refrigerator cars, 830. 
Schwartenmagen, 772. 
Schweinsberger disease, 296. 
Sclerostomum equinum, 309. 

— pinguicola, 309, 415. 
Scotland, meat laws of, 28, 31. 
Scour of calves, 681. 

Sepsis; see Septicemia. 

— intestinalis, 712. 

Septic intestinal diseases of cattle, 572, 



INDEX 



881 



Septicemia, 566. 

— diagnosis of, 569. 

— etiology of, 567. 

— hemorrhagic, 671. 

— of geese, 707. 

— slaughter findings in, 736. 
Serous tuberculosis; see Pearl Disease. 
Serum manufacture in connection 

with slaughterhouses, 42. 
Sex of slaughtered animals, recogni- 
tion of, 228. 

— in cattle, 228. 

— in deer, 233. 

— in hogs, 232. 

— in sheep, 231. 

Sexual organs, diseases of, 310. 
Sheep, fat of, 203. 

— bones, 206. 

— inspection of, 159. 

— pox, 121, 592. 

" Shield " in boars, 167, 232, 269. 
Shooting mask, 134, 135. 
Shrimps, adulteration of, 784. 

— coloring by fuchsin, 785. 
Skeleton, differences in different ani- 
mal species, 204. 

— diseases of, 349. 

Skin, normal appearance of, 166. 

— used for sausage, 167. 

— inspection of, 157. 
Slaughter, methods of, 130. 

simple bleeding, 132. 

pithing, 134, 143. 

stunning, 134, 144. 

— advantages of different methods, 
138. 

— Jewish method, 133. 

— order of procedure in, 145. 

— English patent method, 130. 

— ax, 134. 

— mask, 134. 

Slaughterhouses and stock yards, 42. 
and accessory industries, 41. 

— French room system, 39. 

— German hall system , 39. 

— in German Empire, 37. 

— in Prussia, 37. 

— in large cities, 38. 

— in rural districts, 44. 

— on frontier, 163. 

— structure and equipment of, 38. 
Smelt as hog feed, 246. 



Smoke, effect on pathogenic bacteria, 

808. 
Smoking meat, 807. 

methods of, 807. 

preservative effect of, 807. 

— rooms, 41. 

Soap manufacture, 858. 

Sooty mange of young pigs, 270. 

Sour fermentation, 746. 

Sozolith, 814. 

Spain, meat inspection in, 30. 

Spaying cows, 233. 

— hogs, 233. 

Spinal cord, diseases of, 348. 
Spiradenitis coccidiosa, 272. 
Spiroptera reticulata, 291. 
Spleen, appearance of, 170. 
■ — diseases of, 346. 

— inspection of, 157. 

— swelling of, 347. 
Splenic glands, 184. 
"Spoiled " meat, 103-107. 
Sporozoa, 520. 

Spot erysipelas of hogs, 691. 

Spring bolt apparatus for killing hogs, 

136. 
" Stabil " for coloring meat, 787. 

— for preserving sausages, 803. 
Stamping inspected animals, 155. 
Staphylococcus albus, 559. 

— bonis, 5G0. 

— citreus, 559. 

— mastitidiSySlo. - 

— pyogenes in anemia, 369. 

aureus, 304, 315, 557, 561, 664. 

bovis, 559. 

flavus, 633. 

Starch, addition of to sausages, 771. 

— and the water content of sausagesv 
775. 

— and the loss of water in smoking; 
and drying, 775. 

— demonstration of in sausages, 777. 

— histology of, 778. 

— quantitative demonstration of, 778. 
Stare's conservator, 810. 

— Sanitas, 810. 

— sausage salt, 810. 
Status adiposus, 186. 

Steam sterilization of meat, 847. 

— loss of weight during, 854. 

— methods of, 847. 



882 



INDEX 



Steam sterilization of meat, results of 
experiments, 849. 

— value of, 847. 

— under high pressure, 857. 
Steatosis of musculature, 364. 
Stephanurus dentatus, 309. 
Stern's preserving salt, 810. 
Stockyards, connection with slaugh- 
terhouses, 42. 

Stomach, appearance and weight, 169. 

— diseases of, 279. 

— inspection of, 158. 
Stomatitis, 274. 

Straschiripka and Tiffany system of 

refrigerator cars, 830. 
Streptococcus erysipelatis, 683. 

— involutus, 587. 

— mastitidis contagiosa, 315. 

— pyogenes, 557. 
Stroptothrix cuniculi, 680. 
Stripperies, 42. 
Strongylidaa, 408. 
Strongylus armatus, 281, 291. 

in lungs, 322, 329. 

-in blood vessels, 341. 

— capillaris, 325, 328, 411, 412. 

— cemuus, 408. 

— commutatus, 328, 410, 413. 

— contortus, 281, 408. 

— convolutus, 409. 

— curticei, 281. 

— dentatus, 283. 

— filaria, 325, 328, 411. 

— fillicollis, 281, 410. 

— follicularis, 283. 

— harkeri, 281, 410. 

— hypostomus, 408. 
— ■ inflatus, 408. 

— micrurus, 325, 328, 410. 

— oncophorus, 281, 409. 
— ■ ostertagi, 281,409. 

— 'paradoxus, 328, 410, 414. 
— ■ radiatus, 408. 

— retortaformis, 281, 410. 

— strigosus, 410. 

— ventricosus, 408. 

— venidosus, 408. 

Strychnin in poisoned animals, 381. 
Stunning animals, 134. 
Subcutis, edema of, 272. 

— fat tissue of, 272. 

— urinous infiltration in, 273. 



Subiliac glands, 181. 
Submaxillary glands, 179. 
"Suffocated " meat, 747. 
Sugar factory oxen, dropsy in, 370. 
Suggillation, 258. 

Sulphurous acid, preservative effect 
of, 815. 

— as a preservative, 813. 

— application of, 813. 

— demonstration, 815. 

— in minced meat, 817. 

— in trade preparations, 814. 

— judgment on, 816. 
Siilzwurst, 772. 
Suppurations, 556. 
Surra, 537. 

Sweden, meat inspection in, 31. 
Swill, effect on bacon, 187. 
Swine erysipelas, 683. 

— diagnosis, 688. 

— distribution by meat traffic, 686. 

— resistance of bacilli to heat, 684. 

— susceptibility of other animals, 684. 

— symptoms, 686. 

— fever; see Hog cholera. 

— inspection of, 159. 

— plague, 694-696. 

— diagnosis, 694. 

— judgment concerning, 695. 

— plague followed by pyemia, 566. 
Switzerland, meat inspection in, 31. 
Syngamus laryngeus, 320. 

— trachealis, 320, 407 

Table ripeness of meat, 197. 
Tamia caznurus, 395. 

— echinococcus, 501, 513. 

— inermis, 420. 

— marginata, 9, 395, 432, 519. 

— mediocanellata, 420. 

— saginata, 8, 420, 421, 426, 429, 432. 

— serrata, 395. 

— solium, 7, 8, 26, 425, 442, 451. 

— tenella, 417. 
Tallow factory, 42. 
Tallow-like muscle alteration, 364. 
Talmud meat laws, 11, 133. 
Tanbark for producing smoke, 807. 
Tapeworms, 394. 

— larval stages, 395. 
Tartarus stibiatus, 380. 
Tasajo, 823". 



INDEX 



883 



Terepha, 133. 

Testicles, diseases of, 310. 

— in sausages, 782. 

— inspection of, 158. 
Tetanus, 576. 

— bacillus, 576. 

— toxin, 577. 
Tetrarhynchus, 398. 
Texas fever, 533-537. 
Thoracic lymph glands, 182. 
Thrombophlebitis umbilicalis, 564,570. 
Throwing animals, methods of, 140. 
Thymus gland, 151. 
Thysanosoma actinoides, 395. 

— ovilla, 395. 

Tongue, normal appearance of, 176. 

— diseases of, 273. 

— pickling of, 804. 

Toxigen in parturient paralysis, 387. 
Toxins, 551, 553, 568, 754. 
Trachea, diseases of, 319. 
Transportation of animals, 127. 

— and rest before slaughter, 127. 
Transudation, 258. 
Traumatic pericarditis, 555. 

— pneumonia, 670. 
Trematodes, 398. 
Treuenit, 815. 

Trichina calcification, 462, 541. 

— degeneration of, 465. 

— diagnosis of, 476. 

— encapsulation of, 465. 

— false, 455. 

— general account of, 454. 

— in American pork, 32, 471, 498. 

— in dogs, 473. 

— in badger, wild hog, cat, bear, fox, 
marten and pole cat, 468. 

— in meat preparations, 490. 

— in salt pork, 496. 

— inspection, 483. 

— inspection for American salt pork, 
496. 

— inspection in Prussia, 494. 

— inspectors, 487. 

— in rats, 479. 

— in sucking pigs, 473. 

— morphology of, 466. 

— occurrence of 468. 

— preparations, 491. 

— proper muscles to examine, 488. 
Trichinosis, 455. 



Trichinosis in man, 478. 

— and raw meat, 2. 
Trichinous pork, method of procedure 

with, 482. 

Trigonella fmcum-grcecum, influence 
on odor of meat, 246. 

Triple phosphate crystals in decom- 
posing meat, 546. 

Troops, condition of meat for, 235. 

Trutta salar, 785. 

Trypanosomata, 538. 

Tsetse fly, 538. 

Tubercle bacillus, 607. 

— resistance to heat, etc., 609. 

— virulence of, 610. 
Tuberculosis, general account, 601- 

651. 

— and age of animals, 606. 

— diagnosis of, 618. 

— experiments to determine the char- 
acter of meat in, 643. 

— frequency of, 605. 

— German regulations concerning, 
647. 

— in birds, 651. 

— in different organs, 622. 

— in different species of food animals,, 
603. 

— in hogs, 619. 

— in lymph glands of head, 277. 

— in slaughtered animals, 623. 

— intestinal, 285. 

— of the muscles, 365. 

— local and generalized, 620. 

— obligatory declaration for meat, 
645. 

— pathological anatomy of, 613. 

— sanitary judgment of, 629. 

— scientific procedure with meat, 645^ 

— sterilization of meat, 644. 

— symptoms of, 611. 

— transmission of bovine form to- 
man, 629. 

— treatment of fat, 645. 

— virulence of meat of affected 
animals, 635. 

Tumors, 265. 

— benign, 265. 

— judgment of, 266. 

— malignant, 265. 
Turpentine, odor of in meat, 384. 
Tympanites, 741. 



884 



INDEX 



Tyrosin deposits in smoked pork, 545. 

TJdder, actinomycosis of, 317. 

— botryomyco3is of, 316. 

— diseases of, 313. 

— edema of, 313. 

— tuberculosis of, 316. 
Ulcus pepticum, 280. 

Umbilical vessels, changes in after 

birth, 240. 
■". Unclean u animals, 10, 40. 

— meat, 116. 

United States inspection (see also the 

Introduction), 32. 
Uremia, 377. 
Uremic gangrene, 377. 
Urethra, diseases of, 309. 
Urino-genital apparatus, diseases of, 

301. 
Urinous infiltration of subcutis, 273. 
Urticaria, 691-693. 

— etiology, 692. 

— treatment, 693. 
Uteri in sausage, 782. 
Uterus, catarrh of, 311. 

— diseases of, 311. 

— inspection of, 158. 

— tumors of, 312. 



Vaccination with cowpox, 591. 
Vaccine establishments, 42. 
Vacuole bacillus, 699. 
Vagina, diseases of, 312. 
Veal, classification of, 151. 

— differentiation of, 201. 
Vegetarianism, 2, 3. 
Veratrin, 381. 
Verminous pneumonia, 324. 
Vinegar eel, 477. 

Warble fly of ox, 390. 

Water absorbed by pounded meat, 

770. 
Whale oil odor in meat, 245. 
Wheat bread added to sausage, 782. 
White scour of calves, 681. 
Wickes' refrigerator cars, 831. 
Wooden tongue, 277, 657. 
Worms, 394. 

Xanthosis, 253. 

Ziffer's preserving powder, 810. 

— preserving salt, 810. 
Zooglcea pulmonis equi, 662. 



COLORED PLATE. 



'Fig. 1. Anthrax Bacilli. — Double stain according to Klett. X 500 
diameters. 

!Fig. 2. Tubercle Bacilli. — Double stain according to Zielil-Gabbet. 
X 500 diameters. 

Fig. 3. Swine Erysipelas Bacilli. — Gram method, subsequently 
stained with eosiu. X 500 diameters. 

Fig. 4. Pleuro-pneumonia. — a, fresh focus of inflammation ; b, older 
foci ; c, necrotic focus (without sequestration as yet). 
Thrombi are shown in the blood and lymph vessels in 
the much thickened interlobular tissue of the freshly 
inflamed foci. 






V 



I 




Ostertag 



Iith,.AnslvWcrner Winter, FrcaikfurbW 



WILLIAM R. JENKINS' 



hiuhe of ieiqbdt books 



1904 

At rlip bnoli of thu Catalogue lull rte i Bci ' iplious uf lh» 
■ IjitOBt boohe will li a loiuul i 



(*) Single asterisk designates New Books. 
(**) Double asterisk designates Recent Publications . 



ANDERSON. "Vice in the Horse" and other papers 
on Horses and Kiding. By E. L. Anderson. Demy, 
8vo, cloth 2 00 

ABMSTEAD. "The Artistic Anatomy of the Horse." 

A brief description of the various Anatomical Struc- 
tures which may be distinguished during Life through 
the Skin, By Hugh W. Armstead, M.D., F.E.O.S. 
With illustrations from drawings by the author. 
Cloth oblong, 12£ x 10 3 75 

BACH. "How to Judge a Horse." A concise treatise 
as to its Qualities and Soundness ; Including Bits and 
Bitting, Saddles and Saddling, Stable Drainage, Driv- 
ing One Horse, a Pair, Four-in-hand, or Tandem, etc. 
By Captain F.W. Bach. 
12mo, cloth, fully illustrated 1 00 



Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins 



{**)BANHAM. "Anatomical and Physiological Model of 
the Horse." Half life size. Composed of super- 
posed plates, colored to nature, showing internal 
organs, muscles, skeleton, etc., mounted on strong 
boards, with explanatory text. By George A, 
Banhain, F.R.C.V.S. Size of Model 38x41 in.. . .7 50 

(**)_ a Tables of Veterinary Posology and Therapeutics," 

with weights, measures, etc. By Geo. A. Banham, 
F.R.C.V.S. New edition. 12mo, cloth 100 

BAUCHEB. "Method of Horsemanship." Including 
the Breaking and Training of Horses. By 
F. Baucher 1 00 

(*)BELL. "The Veterinarian's CaU Book (Perpetual)." 

By Roseoe R. Bell, D.V.S., editor of the American 
Veterinary Review. Revised for 1904, 

A visiting list, that can be commenced at any time 
and used until full, containing much useful informa- 
tion for the student and the busy practitioner. 
Among content* are items concerning : Veterinary 
Drugs ; Poisons ; Solubility of Drugs ; Composition of 
Milk, Bile, Blood, Gastric Juice, Urine, Saliva ; Respi- 
ration; Dentition; Temperature, etc., etc. Bound in 
flexible leather, with flap and pocket 1 25 

BRADLEY. "Outlines of Veterinary Anatomy." 

By O. Charnock Bradley, Member of the Royal Col- 
lege of Veterinary Surgeons ; Professor of Anatomy 
in the New Veterinary College, Edinburgh. 

The author presents the most important facts of 
veterinary anatomy in as condensed a form as possible, 
consistent with lucidity. 12mo. 

Complete in three parts. 

Pabt I. : The Limbs (cloth) 1 25 

Pabt II. : The Trunk (paper) 1 25 

Part III. : The Head and Neck (paper) 1 25 

The Set complete , 3 50 



851-853 Sixth Avenue (cor. 48th St.), New York. 



CADIOT. "Roaring in Horses." Its Pathology and 
Treatment. This work represents the latest develop- 
ment in operative methods for the alleviation 
of roaring. Each step is most clearly defined by 
excellent full-page illustrations. By P. J. Cadiot, 
Professor at the Veterinary School, Alfort. Trans. 
Thos. J. Watt Dollar, M.R.C.V.S., etc. Cloth 75 

— " Exercises in Equine Surgery." By P. J. Cadiot. 
Translated by Prof. A. W. Bitting, M.D..V.S. ; edited 
by Prof. A. Liautard, M.D.V.S. 8vo, cloth, illus- 
trated 2 50 

(*)— u A Treatise on Surgical Therapeutics of the Domestic 
Animals." By P. J. Cadiot and J. Almy. Translated 
by Prof. A. Liautard, M,D.,V.S. 3 Parts ready. 

Part I, Vol. I, 8vo, 93 pages, 45. illustrations 1 00 

Part II, Vol., I, 8vo, 96 pages 1 00 

Part III, Vol., I, 8vo, 134 pages, 33 illustrations .. 1 00 
Part IV, in preparation, to be ready in 1904. 

(**)—" Clinical Veterinary Medicine and Surgery." By P. J. 

Cadiot. Translated; edited, and supplemented with 
49 new articles and 31 illustrations by Jno. A. W. 
Dollar, M.R.C.V.S. Royal 8vo, 619 pages, 94 black 

and white illustrations 5 25 

See also " Dollar." 

(*•) CHAPMAN. "Manual of the Pathological Treatment 
of Lameness in the Horse," treated solely by 
mechanical means. By George T. Chapman. 8vo, 
cloth, 124 pages 2 00 

CHAUVEAU. "The Comparative Anatomy of the 
Domesticated Animals." By A. Chauveau. New 
edition, translated, enlarged and entirely revised by 
Geo. Fleming, F.R.C.V.S. 8vo, cloth, 585 illus.. .6 25 



Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins 



CLARKE. "Chart of the Feet and Teeth of Fossil 
Horses." By W. H. Clarke 25 

CLEAVELAND. "Pronouncing Medical Lexicon." 

Pocket edition. Cloth 75 

CLEMENT. »* Veterinary Post Mortem Examina- 
tions." By A. W. Clement, V.S. Eecords of 
autopsies, to be of any value, should accurately 
represent the appearances of the tissues and organs 
so that a diagnosis might be made by the reader were 
not the examiners' conclusions stated. To make the 
pathological conditions clear to the reader, some 
definite system of dissection is necessary. The 
absence in the English language, of any guide in 
making autopsies upon the lower animals, induced 
Dr. Clement to write this book, trusting that it 
would prove of practical value to th« profession. 
12mo, cloth, illustrated 75 

(**) CO URTENA F. "Manual of the Practice of Veterinary 
Medicine." By Edward Courtenay, V. S. Revised by 
Frederick T. G. Hobday, F.R.C.V.S. Second edition. 
Crown, 8vo, cloth 2 75 

COX. " Horses : In Accident and Disease." The 

sketches introduced embrace various attitudes which 
have been observed, such as in choking ; the disorders 
and accidents occurring to the stomach and intestines ; 
affection of the brain ; and some special forms of lame- 
ness, etc. By J. Boalfe Cox, F.R.C.V.S. 8vo, cloth, 
fully illustrated 150 

CURTIS. "Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Swine." The 

origin, history, improvement, description, characteris- 
tics, merits, objections, etc. By Geo. W. Curtis, 
M.S.A. Superbly illustrated. Cloth, $2 00; half 
sheep, $2.75 ; half morocco 3 §0 



851-853 Sixth Avenue (cor. ±8th St.), New York. 



(**)DALBTMPLE. "Veterinary Obstetrics." A compen- 
dium for the use of advanced students and Practi- 
tioners. By W. H. Dalrymple, M. K. C. V. S., 
principal of the Department of Veterinary Science in 
the Louisiana State University and A. & M. College ; 
Veterinarian to the Louisiana State Bureau of 
Agriculture, and Agricultural Experiment Stations ; 
Member of the United States Veterinary Medical 
Associations, etc. 8vo, cloth, illus 2 50 



DALZIEL. " The Fox Terrier." Illustrated. (Monographs 
on British Dogs) . By Hugh Dalziel 1 00 

— " The St. Bernard." Illustrated 1 00 

— "The Diseases of Dogs." Their Pathology, Diagnosis 

and Treatment, with a dictionary of Canine Materia 
Medica. By Hugh Dalziel. 12mo, cloth 80 

— "Diseases of Horses." 12mo, cloth l 00 

— "Breaking and Training Dogs." Being concise 

directions for the proper education of dogs, both 
for the field and for companions. Second edi- 
tion, revised and enlarged. Part I, by Pathfinder: 
Part II, by Hugh Dalziel. 12mo, cloth, illus.... 2 60 

— "The Collie." Its History, Points, and Breeding. By 

Hugh Dalziel. Illustrated, 8vo, cloth 1 00 

— "The Greyhound." 8vo, cloth, illus l 00 



DANA. "Tables in Comparative Physiology." By Prof. 
C. L. Dana, M.D 25 



DANCE. "Veterinary Tablet." Folded in cloth case. 
The tablet of A. A. Dance is a synopsis of the diseases 
of horses, cattle and dogs, showing at a glance the 
causes, symptoms and cures 75 



Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins 



{*)DE BRUIN. "Bovine Obstetrics." By M. G. De Bruin, 

Instructor of Obstetrics at the State Veterinary 
School in Utrecht. Translated by W. E. A. Wyman, " 
formerly Professor of Veterinary Science at Clemson 
A. & M. College, and Veterinarian to the South 
Carolina Experiment Station. 
8vo, cloth, 382 pages, 77 illustrations 5 00 

Synopsis of the Essential Features of the Work 

1. Authorized translation. 

2. The only ohstetrical work which is up to date. 

3. Written by Europe's leading authority on the subject. 

4. Written by a man who has practiced the art a Lifetime. 

5. Written by a man who, on account of his eminence as 
bovine practitioner and teacher of obstetrics, was selected 
by Prof. Dr. Frohner and Prof. Dr. Bayer (Berlin and 
Vienna), to discuss bovine obstetrics, both practically and 
scientifically. 

tj. The only work containing a thorough differential diag- 
nosis of ante and post partum diseases. 

7. The only work doing justice to modern obstetrical 
surgery and therapeutics. 

8. Written by a man whose practical suggestions revolu- 
tionized the teaching of veterinary obstetrics even in the 
great schools of Europe. 

9. The only work dealing fully with the now no longer 
obscure contagious and infectious diseases of calves. 

10. Absolutely original and no compilation. 

11. The only work dealing fully with the difficult problem 
of teaching obstetrics in the colleges. 

13. The only work where the practical part is not over- 
shadowed by theory. 

... A veterinarian, particularly if his location brings him in 
contact with obstetrical practice, who makes any pretence toward 
being scientific and in possession of modern knowledge upon this 
subject, will not be without this excellent work, as it is really a very 
valuable treatise. It contains nearly 400 pages, numerous illustrations, 
and is put together in Jenkins' best style. — Prof. Roscoe R. Bell, in the 
American Veterinary Review. 

In translating into English Professor De Bruin's excellent text- 
book on Bovine Obstetrics, Dr. Wyman has laid British and American 
veterinary surgeons and students under a debt of gratitude. The 
work represents the happy medium between the booklets which are 
adapted for cramming purposes by the student, and the ponderous 
tomes which, although useful to the teacher, are not exactly suited 
to the requirements of the everyday practitioner ... It contains 
seventy-seven excellent illustrations . . . Both translator and pu- 
blisher have done their work in a way that deserves praise, and we 
can strongly recommend the work to veterinary students and practi- 
tioners. — The Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics. 

This grand volume, written by Europe's leading authority on the 
subject, who has practiced the art for a lifetime, is the most recent and 
up-to-date obstetrical work. It discusses bovine obstetrics, both prac- 
tically and scientifically, and contains thorough differential diagnoses 
of ante and post mortem diseases. It deals fully with the now no 
longer obscure contagious and infectious diseases of calves, and is the 
only work of the kind in which the practical part is not overshadowed 
by theory.— American Agriculturist. 

See also " Wyman." 



851-853 Sixth Avenue (cor. ASth St), New York. 



(**)DOLLAB. "Clinical Veterinary Medicine and Sur- 
gery." By P. J. Cadiot. Translated, edited, and 
supplemented with 49 new articles and 34 illustra- 
tions by Jno. A. W. Dollar, M.R.C.V.S. Eoyal 8vo, 
619 pages, 94 black and white illustrations 5 25 

. . . This work, containing as it does the ripe exper- 
ience of the author, who may be considered one of the 
foremost surgeons and clinicians of the day, contains a 
vast amount of exact scientific information of the utmost 
value to the busy workaday practitioner, while for the 
student of either human or compa r ative medicine, no 
better book could be placed in their hands, that will give 
them a clear insight into the many intricate problems 
with which they are daily confronted. . . .—American 
Veterinary Review. 

See also " Cadiot." 



(**)— " Operative Technique. " For veterinary surgeons. 
Being the first volume of a new work on the practice 
of veterinary surgery. By Jno. A. W. Dollar, 
M.KC.V.S. 8vo, cloth 3.75 



(*)—" Regional Veterinary Surgery." By Drs. H. Mollerand 
Jno. A. W. Dollar. Royal 8vo, 853 and xvi pages, 

315 illustrations 6.25 

See extended notice in back part of Catalogue 



(**)— "A Hand-book of Horse-Shoeing," with introductory 
chapters on the anatomy and physiology of the 
horse's foot. By Jno. A. W. Dollar, M.K.C.V.S., 
translator and editor of Moller's " Veterinary Sur- 
gery," "An Atlas of Veterinary Surgical Operations," 
etc. ; with the collaboration of Albert Wheatley, 
F.E.C.V.S. 8yo, cloth, 433 pp., 406 illustrations . .4.75 



— "Roaring in Horses." By Prof. P. J. Cadiot. Translated 

by Dr. Dollar. Cloth, illustrated 75 

See also " Cadiot." 



Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins 



DUN. "Veterinary Medicines, their Actions and Uses." 

By Finlay Dun, V.S., late lecturer on Materia 

Medica and Dietetics at the Edinburgh Veterinary 

College, and Examiner in Chemistry to the Royal 

College of Veterinary Surgeons. New (tenth) revised 

and enlarged English edition. 8vo, cloth 3 75 

The new volume has been carefully revised, adapted to 
the official British Pharmacopoeia, 1898, and brought up to 
date by Prof. James Macqueen, F.R.C.V.S., Royal Veterin- 
ary College, London. Clinical experiments and therapeutic 
observations— which form the basis of the rational treat- 
ment of disease— directions for using mallein, tuberculin, 
and Black-quarter vaccine, and all the more important 
recently introduced medicines have been added. An index 
of diseases and remedies, supplemented by a copious index 
of medicines, will enhance the usefulness of the book to 
students and practitioners. 



DWTEB. "Seats and Saddles." Bits and Bitting, 
Draught and Harness and the Prevention and Cure of 
Kestiveness in Horses. By Francis Dwyer. Illus- 
trated. 1 vol., 12mo, cloth, gilt 1 50 



FLEMING. " Veterinary Obstetrics." Including the 
Accidents and Diseases incident to Pregnancy, Parturi- 
tion, and the Early Age in Domesticated Animals. 
By Geo. Fleming, F.R.C.V.S. Illustrated 6 25 

— "Operative Veterinary Surgery." Vol. I, by Dr. Geo. 
Fleming, M.E.C.V.S. This valuable work, one of the 
most practical treatises yet issued on the subject in 
the English language, is devoted to the common opera- 
tions of Veterinary Surgery ; and the concise descrip- 
tions and directions of the text are illustrated with 
numerous wood engravings. 
8vo, cloth 2 75 

(*) Part II, containing nearly 500 pages and 400 illus- 
trations, edited and passed through the press by 
Principal W. Owen Williams, F.E.C.V.S. 
8vo, cloth 3 25 



851-853 Sixth Avenue (cor. 4Sth St.), New York. 



FLEMING. "Tuberculosis." From a Sanitary and Patho- 
logical Point of View. By Geo. Fleming, F.R.C. 
V.S 25 

— " The Contagious Diseases of Animals." Their influence on 

the wealth and health of nations. 12mo, paper 25 

— "The Comparative Anatomy of the Domesticated Animals." 

By A. Chauveau. Translated by Dr. Fleming. 

8vo, cloth, illustrated 6 25 

See also " Chauveau." 

— " Human and Animal Variolar." A Study in Comparative 

Pathology. Paper 25 

— "Animal Plagues." Their History, Nature, and 

Prevention. By George Fleming, F. R. C. V. S., etc. 

First Series. 8vo, cloth 6 00 

Second Series. 8vo, cloth 3 00 

— " Roaring in Horses." By Dr. George Fleming, 

F.R.C. V.S. A treatise on this peculiar disorder 
of the Horse, indicating its method of treatment 
and curability. 8vo, cloth, with col. plates 1 50 



FLEMING-NEUMANN. "Parasites and Parasitic 
Diseases of the Domesticated Animals." A work 
to which the students of human or veterinary medi- 
cine, the sanitarian, agriculturist or breeder or rearer 
of animals, may refer for full information regarding 
the external and internal Parasites — vegetable and 
animal — which attack various species of Domestic 
Animals. A Treatise by L. G. Neumann, Professor 
at the National Veterinary School of Toulouse. 
Translated and edited by George Fleming, C. B., L.L. 
D.,F.R.C.V.S. 873 pages, 365 illustrations, cloth.7 50 



10 Veterinary Catalogue of William iJ. Jenkins 



GRESSWELL. "Diseases and Disorders of the Horse." 

By Albert, James B. and George Gresswell. 

Crown, 8vo, illustrated, cloth 1 75 

— Manual of "The Theory and Practice of Equine Medicine." 

By James B. Gresswell, F.K.C.V.S., and Albert 
Gresswell, M.R.C.V.S., second edition, enlarged, 
8vo, cloth 2 75 

— " The Bovine Prescriber." For the use of Veterina- 

rians and Veterinary Students. By James B. and 
Albert Gresswell, M.R.C.V.S Cloth 75 

— "The Equine Hospital Prescriber." For the use of Veter- 

inary Practitioners and Students. By Drs. James 
B. and Albert Gresswell, M.B.C.V.S. Cloth 75 

— "Veterinary Pharmacopoeia, Materia Medica and 

Therapeutics." By George and Charles Gresswell, 
with descriptions and physiological actions of medi- 
cines, by Albert Gresswell. 
Crown, 8vo, cloth 2 75 



GOTTHEIL. "A Manual of General Histology." 

By Wm. S. Gottheil, M.D., Professor of Pathology in 
the American Veterinary College, New York; etc., etc. 
Histology is the basis of the physician's art, as 
Anatomy is the foundation of the surgeon's science. 
Only by knowing the processes of life can we under- 
stand the changes of disease and the action of 
remedies ; as the architect must know his building 
materials, so must the practitioner of medicine know 
the intimate structure of the body. To present this 
knowledge in an accessible and simple form has 
been the author's task. 
8vo., cloth, 148 pages, fully illustrated , 1 00 



851-853 Sixth Avenue (cor. A8th St.), New York. ll 



HA SSL O CH. ' ' A Compend of Veterinary Materia Medica 
and Therapeutics." By Dr. A. C. Hassloch, V.S., 
Lecturer on Materia Medica and Therapeutics, and 
Professor of Veterinary Dentistry at the New York 
College of Veterinary Surgeons and School of Compa- 
rative Medicine, N. Y. 12mo, cloth, 225 pages . .1 50 



HEATLEY. " The Stock Owner's Guide." A handy Medi- 
cal Treatise for every man who owns an ox or cow. 
By George S. Heatley, M.R.C.V. 12mo, cloth.. .1 25 

— "The Horse Owner's Safeguard." A handy Medical 

Guide for every Horse Owner. 12mo, cloth ...... 1 50 

— "Practical Veterinary Remedies." 12mo, cloth 1 00 



HILL,. "The Management and Diseases of the Dog" 

Containing full instructions for Breeding, Bearing and 
Kenneling Dogs. Their Different Diseases. How to 
detect and how to cure them. Their Medicines, and 
the doses in which they can be safely administered. 
By J. Woodroffe Hill, F.R.C.V.S. 12mo, cloth, extra 
fully illustrated 2 00 



(**)HILL. "The Diseases of the Cat." By J. Woodroffe 

Hill, F.R.C.V.S. 12mo, cloth, illustrated 1 25 

Written from the experience of many years' prac- 
tice and close pathological research into the maladies 
to which our domesticated feline friends are liable — a 
subject which it must be admitted has not found not 
prominence in veterinary literature to which it is 
undoubtedly entitled. 



HINEBAUCH. "Veterinary Dental Surgery." For the 

use of Students, Practitioners and Stockmen. 
12mo, cloth, illustrated 2 00 



12 Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins 



HO ARE. "A Manual of Veterinary Therapeutics and 
Pharmacology." By E. Wallis Hoare, F.E.C.V.S. 
12mo, cloth, 560 pages 2 75 

"Deserves a good place in the libraries of all veterina- 
rians. * * * Cannot help but be of the greatest assist- 
ance to the young veterinarian and the every day busy 
practitioner."— American Veterinary Review. 

(*)HOBDAY. " Canine and Feline Surgery." By Frederick 
T. G. Hobday, F.E.C.V.S., Professor in Charge of the 
Free Out-Patients' Clinique at the Royal Veterinary 
College, London, The work contains 76 illustrations 
in the text. Demy 8vo, 152 pp., full-bound cloth .2 00 

(*)— "The Castration of Cryptorchid Horses and 
he Ovariotomy of Troublesome Mares." By 

Frederick T. G. Hobday, F.E.C.V.S. 8vo, cloth, 
finely illustrated 1.75 

(•*) HUNTING. The Art of Horse-shoeing. A manual 
for Farriers. By William Hunting, F.E.C.V.S., ex- 
president of the Eoyal College of Veterinary Sur- 
geons. One of the most up-to-date, concise books of 
its kind in the English language. 8vo, cloth, with 
nearly 100 illustrations 1 00 

{**)JENKINS. " Model of the Horse." 7 50 

See also " Banham." 

(")KOBERT. "Practical Toxicology for Physicians and 
Students." By Professor Dr. Eudolph Kobert, 
Medical Director of Dr. Brehmer's Sanitarium for 
Pulmonary Diseases at Goerbersderf in Silesia (Prus- 
sia), late Director of the Pharmacological Institute, 
Dorpat, Eussia. Translated and edited by L. H. 
Friedburg, Ph.D. Authorized Edition. 8vo, cloth. 2 60 

KOCH. ".Etiology of Tuberculosis." By Dr. E. Koch. 
Translated by T. Saure. 8vo, cloth 1 00 



851-853 Sixth Avenue (cor. 48th St.), New York. 13 



KEATING. "A New Unabridged Pronouncing Diction- 
ary of Medicine." By John M. Keating, M.D., LL.D., 

Henry Hamilton and others. A voluminous and 
exhaustive hand-book of Medical and scientific 
terminology with Phonetic Pronunciation, Accentu- 
ation, Etymology, etc. With an appendix containing 
important tables of Bacilli, Microcci, Leucomaines, 
Ptomaines ; Drugs and Materials used in Antiseptic 
Surgery; Poisons and their antidotes; Weights and 
Measures; Themometer Scales; New Officinal and 
Unofficial Drugs, etc., etc. 8vo, 818 pages 5 00 

LAMBERT. "The Germ Theory of Disease." 

Bearing upon the health and welfare of man and the 
domesticated animals. By James Lambert, F.R.C.V.S. 
8vo. paper 25 

LAW. "Farmers' Veterinary Adviser." A Guide to the 
Prevention and Treatment of Disease in Domestic 
Animals. By Prof. James Law. Illus., 8vo, cloth. 8 00 



C^LEGGE. "Cattle Tuberculosis." A Practical Guide 
to the Farmer, Butcher and Meat Inspector. By T.M. 
Legge, M.A., M.D., D.P.H., Secretary of the Koyal 
Commission on Tuberculosis, 1896-98; author of 
" Public Health in European Capitals," and " Harold 
Sessions, F.E.C.V.S." Cloth 1 00 



(*)LIAUTARD. "A Treatise on Surgical Therapeutics 
of the Domestic Animals." By Prof. Dr. P. J. Cadiot 
and J. Almy. Translated by Prof. Liautard. 

Part I, Volume I l 00 

Part II, " 1 00 

Part III, " 100 

(Part IV in preparation, ready 1904.) 
See also " Cadiot." 



14 Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins 



LIAUTARD. "Median Neurotomy in the Treatment of 
Chronic Tendinitis and Periostosis of the Fetlock." 

By C. Pellerin, late Eepetitor of Clinic and Surgery to 
the Alfort Veterinary School. Translated with addi- 
tional facts relating to it, by Prof. A. Liautard, M.D., 
V.M. 

Having rendered good results when performed by 
himself, the author believes the operation, which 
consists in dividing the cubito-plantar nerve and in 
excising a portion of the peripherical end, the means 
of improving the conditions, and consequently the 
values of many apparently doomed animals. Agricul- 
ture in particular will be benefited. 

The work is divided into two parts. The first covers 
the study of Median Neurotomy itself ; the second, 
the exact relations of the facts as observed by the 
author. 8vo., boards 1 00 

— "Manual of Operative Veterinary Surgery" By A. 

Liautard, M.D., V.M., Principal and Professor 
of Anatomy, Surgery, Sanitary Medicine and Juris- 
prudence in the American Veterinary College; 
Chevalier du Merite Agricole de France, Honorary 
Fellow of the Koyal College of Veterinary Surgeons 
(London), etc., etc. 8vo, cloth, 786 pages and nearly 
600 illustrations 6 00 

(**)_ "Animal Castration." A concise and practical Treatise 

on the Castration of the Domestic Animals. The 

only work on the subject in the English language. 

Illustrated with 52 cuts, having a fine portrait of the 

author. A new revised and enlarged edition, 1902. 

12mo, cloth 2 00 

. . . The most complete and comprehensive work on the 
subject in English veterinary literature.— American Agri- 
culturist. 

— " Exercises in Equine Surgery." By Prof. Dr. P. J. Cadiot. 

Translated by Prof. Bitting and edited by Dr. Liau- 
tard. 8vo, cloth, illustrated 2 50 

See also " Cadiot." 



851-853 Sixth Avenue {cor. mh St.), New York. 15 



LIAUTARD. "On the Lameness of Horses." By A. 

Liautard, M.D..V.S 2 50 

— " How to Tell the Age of the Domestic Animal." By 

Dr. A. Liautard, M.D., V.S. Profusely illustrated. 
12mo, cloth 50 

— "Yade Mecnm of Equine Anatomy." By A. Liautard, 

M.D.V.S. Dean of the American Veterinary College. 
12mo. cloth. New edition, with illustrations 2 00 

— " Translation of Zundel on the Horse's Foot." Cloth . . 2 00 



LONG. "Book of the Pig." Its selection, Breeding, 
Feeding and Management. 8vo, cloth 4 25 

{**)LOWE. "Breeding Bacehorses by the Figure 
System." Compiled by the late C. Bruce Lowe. 
Edited by William Allison, " The Special Commis- 
sioner," London Sportsman, Hon. Secretary Sporting 
League, and Manager of the International Horse 
Agency and Exchange. With numerous fine illustra- 
tions of celebrated horses. Quarto, cloth 7 50 

LUDLOW. "Science in the Stable"; or How a Horse 
can be Kept in Perfect Health and be Used Without 
Shoes, in Harness or under the Saddle. With the 
Reason Why. Second American Edition. Enlarged 
and Exemplified. By Jacob B. Ludlow, M.D. Late 
Staff Surgeon, U. S. Army. Paper, 166 pages 50 

LUPTON. "Horses: Sound and Unsound," with 
Law relating to Sales and Warranty. By J. Irvine 
Lupton, F.R.C.V.S. 8vo, cloth, illustrated 1 25 

^- " The Horse." As he Was, as he Is, and as he Ought to Be. 
By J. I. Lupton, F.K.C,V,S. Illus., Crown, 8vo. .1 40 



16 Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins 



MAONER. " Facts for Horse Owners." By D. Magner. 
Upwards of 1,000 pages, illustrated with 900 engrav- 
ings. 8vo, leather binding 7 50 



McBRIDE. "Anatomical Outlines of the Horse." 

12mo, cloth. Eeduced to 1 50 



Mc COMBIE. "Cattle and Cattle Breeders." Cloth l 00 



OM'FADYEAN. "Anatomy of the Horse." Second 
edition completely revised. A Dissection Guide. 
By John M'Fadyean, M.B., B.Sc, F.E.S.E., Principal 
of the Royal Veterinary College, London. 
8vo, cloth 5 50 

This book is intended for Veterinary students, and 
offers to them in its 48 full-page colored plates 
54 illustrations and excellent text, the most valuable 
and practical aid in the study of Veterinary Anatomy, 
especially in the dissecting room,. 



" Comparative Anatomy of the Domesticated Animals." 

By J. M'Fadyean. Profusely illustrated, and to be 
issued in two parts. 

Parti — Osteology, ready. Paper, 2.50; cloth 2.75 

(Part II in preparation.) 



851-853 Sixth Avenue (cor. ±8th St.), New York. 17 



MILLS. "How to Keep a Dog in the City." By 

Wesley Mills, M.D., V.S. It tells how to choose 
manage, house, feed, educate the pup, how to keep him 
clean and teach him cleanliness. Paper 25 



(*)MOLLER — DOLLAR. "Regional Veterinary 
Surgery." By Dr. H. Moller, formerly Professor 
of Surgery at the Veterinary High School of Berlin ; 
and Jno. A. W. Dollar, M.R.C.V.S., F.R.S.E., &c, &c. 
Royal 8vo, 853 and xvi pages, 315 illustrations. . .6 25 

(See extended notice in back pari of Catalogue.) 



MOLLER. "Handbook of Meat Inspection." By Robert 
Ostertag, M.D. Translated by Earley Vernon 
Wilcox, A.M., Ph.D. With an introduction by 
John R. Moller, V.M.D., A M. 

(In preparation.) 



MORETON. " On Horse-breaking." 12mo, cloth 50 



MOSSELMAN-L1ENAUX. '-Veterinary Microbio- 
logy." By Professors Mosselman and Lienaux, 
Nat. Veterinary College, Cureghem, Belgium. Trans- 
lated and edited by R. R. Dinwiddie, Professor of 
Veterinary Science, College of Agriculture, Arkansas 
State University. 12mo, cloth, 342 pages 2 00 



18 Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins 



NO CARD. " The Animal Tuberculoses, and their Relation 
to Human Tuberculosis." By Ed. Nocard, Prof, of the 
Alfort Veterinary College. Translated by H. Scurfield, 

M.D. Ed., Ph. Camb. 12mo, cloth, 143 pages 1 00 

Perhaps the chief interest to doctors of human 
medicine in Professor Nocard's book lies in the 
demonstration of the small part played by heredity, 
and the great part played by contagion in the propa- 
gation of bovine tuberculosis. It seems not unreason- 
able to suppose that the same is the case for human 
tuberculosis, and that, if the children of tuberculous 
parents were protected from infection by cohabitation 
or ingestion, the importance of heredity as a cause of 
the disease, or even of the predisposition to it, would 
dwindle away into insignificance. 

OSTEBTAG. "Handbook of Meat Inspection." By 

Robert Ostertag, M.D. Translated by Earley Vernon 
Wilcox, A.M., Ph.D. With an introduction by 
John E. Moller, V.M.D., A.M. 

(In preparation . ) 

PEGLEB. "The Book of the Goat." 12mo, cloth 1 75 

PELLEBIJST. "Median Neurotomy in the Treatment 
of Chronic Tendinitis and Periostosis of the Fetlock." 

By C. Pellerin, late repetitor of Clinic and Surgery to 
the Alfort Veterinary School. Translated, with Addi- 
tional Facts Relating to It, by Prof. A. Liautard, M.D., 
V.M. 8vo, boards, illustrated 1 00 

See also " Liautard." 

PETEBS. " A Tuberculous Herd— Test with Tuber- 
culin." By Austin Peters, M. R. C. V. S., Chief 
Inspector of Cattle for the New York State Board of 
Health during the winter of 1892-93. Pamphlet 25 

BEYNOLDS. "Breeding and Management of Draught 
Horses." By R. S. Reynolds, M.R.C.V.S. 8vo, 
cloth 1 40 



851-853 Sixth Avenue (cor. 48th St.), New York. 19 



ROBEBGE. "The Foot of the Horse," or Lameness 
and all Diseases of the Feet traced to an Unbalanced 
Foot Bone, prevented or cured by balancing the foot. 
By David Boberge. 8vo, cloth 5 00 



SEWELIj. "The Examination of Horses as to Sound- 
ness and Selection as to Purchase." By Edward 
Sewell, M.E.C.V.S. 8vo, illustrated, some in color, 
paper 1 50 

— It is a great advantage to the business man to 
know somethiDg of the elements of law, and nobody 
ought either to buy or own a horse who does not know 
something about the animal. That something this book 

gives, and gives in a thoroughly excellent way 

—Our Animal Friends. 



SMITH. "A Manual of Veterinary Physiology." By 

Veterinary Captain F. Smith, M.E.C.V.S. Author of 
"A Manual of Veterinary Hygiene." 

Throughout this manual the object has been to con- 
dense the information as much as possible. The 
broad facts of the sciences are stated so as to render 
them of use to the student and practitioner. In this 
seeond edition — rewritten — the whole of the Nervous 
System has been revised, a new chapter dealing with 
the Development of the Ovum has been added together 
with many additional facts and illustrations. About 
one hundred additional pages are given. Second 
edition, revised and enlarged, with additional illus- 
trations 3 75 

— "Manual of Veterinary Hygiene." 2nd edition, revised. 
Crown, 8vo, cloth 3 25 



(**) STRANGE WAY. "Veterinary Anatomy." Edited by 
I. Vaughan, F.L.S., M.E.C.V.S. New edition revised, 
With several hundred illustrations. 8vo, cloth 5 00 



20 Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins 



SUSSDORF. "Large Colored Wall Diagrams." By 

Prof. Sussdorf, M.D. (of Gottingen). Text translated 
by Prof. W. Owen Williams, of the New Veterinary 
College, Edinburgh. Size, 44 inches by 30 inches. 

1.— Horse. 4.— Ox. 

2 —Mare. 5.— Boar and Sow. 

3.— Cow. 6.— Dog and Bitch. 

The above are printed in eight or nine colors. 

Showing the position of the viscera in the large 
cavities of the body. 

Price, unmounted 1 75 each 

" mounted on linen, with roller 3 50 " 



(*)TH03IPSON. "Elementary Lectures on Veterinary 
Science." For agricultural students, farmers and 
stock keepers. By Henry Thompson, M.R.C.V.S., 
lecturer on Veterinary Science at the Aspatria Agri- 
cultural College, England. 
8vo, cloth, 397 pages, 51 illustrations 3 75 

It is complete yet concise and just the up-to-date 
book. 



VAN MATER. "A Text Book of Veterinary Oph- 
thalmology." By George G. Van Mater, M.D., 
D.V.S., Professor of Ophthalmology in the American 
Veterinary College ; Oculist and Auristto St. Martha's 
Sanitarium and Dispensary ; Consulting Eye and Ear 
Surgeon to the Twenty-sixth Ward Dispensary ; Eye 
and Ear Surgeon, Brooklyn Eastern District Dispen- 
sary, etc. Illustrated by one chromo lithograph plate 
and seventy-one engravings. 
8vo cloth ". 3 00 

. . . We intend to adopt this valuable work as a text 
book.— E. J. Creely, D.V.S., Dean of the San Francisco 
Veterinary College. 



851-853 Sixth Avenue (cor. 48th St.), New York 21 



VETERINARY DIAGRAMS in Tabular Form. 
Size, 28| in. x 22 inches. Price per set of five. . . 4 00 

No. 1. "The External Form and Elementary Ana- 
tomy of the Horse." Eight colored illustrations — 
1. External regions ; 2. Skeleton ; 3. Muscles (Superior 
Layer) ; 4. Muscles (Deep Layer) ; 5. Respiratory Ap- 
paratus ; 6. Digestive Apparatus ; 7. Circulatory Ap- 
paratus ; 8. Nerve Apparatus ; with letter-press descrip- 
tion 1 25 

No. 2. "The Age of Domestic Animals." Forty-two 
figures illustrating the structure of the teeth, indicat- 
ing the Age of the Horse, Ox, Sheep, and Dog, with 
full description 75 

No. 3. " The Unsoundness and Defects of the Horse." 

Fifty figures illustrating — 1. The Defects of Confor- 
mation ; 2. Defects of Position ; 3. Infirmities or Signs 
of Disease ; 4. Unsoundnesses ; 5. Defects of the Foot ; 
with full description 75 

No. 4. "The Shoeing of the Horse, Mule and Ox." 

Fifty figures descriptive of the Anatomy and Physio- 
logy of the Foot and of Horse-shoeing 75 

No. 5. "The Elementary Anatomy, Points, and But- 
cher's Joints of the Ox." Ten colored illustrations 
— 1. Skeleton; 2. Nervous System: 3. Digestive 
System (Right Side) ; 4. Respiratory System ; 5. Points 
of a Fat Ox ; 6. Muscular System ; 7. Vascular System ; 
8. Digestive System (Left Side) ; 9. Butcher's Sections 
of a Calf ; 10. Butcher's Sections of an Ox ; with full 
description . . 1 25 



WALLET. "Four Bovine Scourges." (Pleuro-Pneumonia, 
Foot and Mouth Disease, Cattle Plague and 
Tubercle.) With an Appendix on the Inspection 
of Live Animals and Meat. 
Illustrated, 4to, cloth 6 40 



22 Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins 



(*) WALLET. "A Practical Guide to Meat Inspection." By 

Thomas Walley, M.R.C.V.S., formerly principal of 
the Edinburgh Royal (Dick) Veterinary College ; Pro- 
fessor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, etc. 
Fourth Edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged 
by Stewart Stockman, M.R.C.V.S., Professor of 
Pathology, Lecturer on Hygiene and Meat Inspection 
at Dick Veterinary College, Edinburgh. 
12mo, cloth, with 45 colored illus., 295 pages. . '. . .3 00 

An experience of over 30 years in his profession 
and a long official connection (some sixteen years) 
with Edinburgh Abattoirs have enabled the author to 
gather a large store of information on the subject, 
which he has embodied in his book. 

While Dr. Stockman is indeed indebted to the 
old for much \iseful information, this up-to- 
date work will hardly be recognized as the old 
" Walley's Meat Inspection." 

WILCOX. "Handbook of Meat Inspection." By Robert 
Ostertag, M.D. Translated by Earley Vernon 
Wilcox, A.M., Ph.D. With an introduction by John 
R. Moller, V.M.D., A.M. 

{In preparation.) 



WILLIAMS. "Principles and Practice of Veterinary 
Medicine." Author's edition, entirely revised and 
illustrated with numerous plain and colored plates. 
By W. Williams, M.R.C.V.S. 
8vo. , eloth 6 00 



— " Principles and Practice of Veterinary Surgery." 

Author's edition, entirely revised and illustrated 
with numerous plain and colored plates. By W. 
Williams, M.R.C.V.S. 
8vo, eloth , , 6 00 



851-853 Sixth Avenue (cor. 48th St.), Neiv York 23 



THE MOST COMPLETE, PROGRESSIVE AND 
SCIENTIFIC BOOK ON THE SUBJECT IN 
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

(*) WINSLO W. "Veterinary Materia Medica and Therapeu- 
tics." By Kenelm Winslow, B.A.S., M.D.V., M.D., 
(Harv.) ; formerly Assistant Professor of Therapeutics 
in the Veterinary School of Harvard University ; 
Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society ; Surgeon 
to the Newton Hospital, etc. 

Second Edition Revised. 

8vo, cloth, 750 pages 6 00 



Your letter received and I am pleased to know that we are to 
have an American Materia Medica.— J. H. Wattles, Sr., M.D., D.V.S., 
The Western Veterinary College, Kansas City, Mo. 

. . . Am delighted with it. It is remarkably correct, complete 
and up to date and is bound to supersede any other work on the 
same subject heretofore before the 'profession. 

No practitioner's library is complete without it and it will be 
indispensable for students, as it does away, with the necessity of their 
having a number of collateral books on the subject. 

It will be adopted as the text book in the Chicago Veterinary 
College. — Dr. E. L. Quitman, Chicago Veterinary College. 

. . . The book is of admirable merit and full of valuable informa- 
tion from beginning to end, very explicit, rich and interesting, and 
should be in the hands of every student as well as ^practitioner of the 
art of Veterinary Medicine. — Thurston Miller, M.D., Professor of 
Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Chemistry, San Francisco Veteri- 
nary College. 

... I have found the book very satisfactory as a reference 
book to be used in connection with lectures. \ .—Dr. W.A. Landacre, 
College of Pharmacy, Ohio State University. 

I consider it the only work on materia medica and therapeutics 
suitable to the American veterinary practitioner. It deserves a wide 
distribution among veterinarians. 1 |have recommended it to my 
students.— John J. Repp, V.M.D., Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa. 



/ 



3 a y*y-» 



In - J6 

24 Veterinary Catalogue of William R. Jenkins. 



{**) WYMAN. "The Clinical Diagnosis of Lameness 
in the Horse." By W. E. A. Wyman, V.S., formerly 
Professor of Veterinary Science, Clemson A. & M. 
College, and Veterinarian to the South Carolina 
Experiment Station. 8vo, cloth, illustrated 2 50 

(*)— "Bovine Obstetrics." By M. G. De Bruin, Instructor 
of Obstetrics at the State Veterinary School in 
Utrecht. Translated by W. E. A. Wyman, M.D.V., 
V.S., formerly Professor of Veterinary Science, 
Clemson A. & M. College, and Veterinarian to the 
South Carolina Experiment Station. 

8vo, cloth, 382 pages, 77 illustrations 5 00 

See also " De Bruin." 

(*)— " Tibio-peroneal Neurectomy for the Relief of Spavin 

Lameness." By W. E. A. Wyman, M.D.V., V.S. 

8vo, boards, 30 pages 50 

Anyone wanting to perform this operation should procure 
this little treatise ; he will find it of considerable help.— The 
■ Veterinary Journal. 

ZUJVDEL. "The Horse's Foot and Its Diseases." By 

A. Zundel, Principal Veterinarian of Alsace Lorraine. 
Translated by Dr. A. Liautard, V.S. 12mo, cloth 
illustrated 2 00 

ZUILL. "Typhoid Fever; or Contagions Influenza 
in the Horse." By Prof. W. L. Zuill, M.D.,D.V.S. 
Pamphlet 25 



Our Books are for sale by all booksellers, 
or will be sent prepaid for the prices here quoted* 

WILLIAn R. JENKINS, 

851 and 853 Sixth Avenue, NEW YORK 



m 



vm 





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 469 276 4 



